UK Needn’t Fear The Data Deluge

In this era of innovation and reinvention businesses see data as critical to gaining market advantage in an increasingly competitive environment. 

However, a new survey has revealed that while UK IT decision-makers (UKITDMs) appreciate the value of data, they also ‘fear’ the effects of the exponential rise in data accumulation within their organisations. They believe that the volume of data they’re gathering to drive their competitiveness, itself, presents significant operational, security, and compliance risks to their business.

Data Growth

The majority of UK businesses have seen significant growth in data volumes over the last three years. In fact, 29% say the amount of data in their business has doubled, and 11% that it has tripled (or more).

This growth in data volumes is primarily driven by today’s increasingly competitive environment. UK businesses stated that the top three external factors with the biggest impact on board-level demand for data-driven insight are:

It’s hardly surprising, then, that data-driven insights for operations and business performance represent a ‘very high priority’ for 77% of UK ITDMs. An overwhelming 97% of UK ITDMs claim to have seen an increase in demand for data driven insight in the last two years.

ITDMs see the benefits of data, and are involved in the drive to gather and use it. The majority think the growth in data volumes over the last three years has presented ‘an opportunity to better-use data to strengthen business resilience’ or 'an opportunity to fuel growth via innovation around products and services’ (30% and 30%). 

So what’s the problem? In short, UK ITDMs also believe that the relentless accumulation of data has brought a number of significant business risks:

Operational Risk

In an increasingly challenging environment, businesses are constantly looking to drive efficiencies in order to run a more competitive business. For many this is a key imperative. But what if the amount of data they’re handling is not only standing in the way, but actively hampering their efforts?

Worryingly, 68% of UK ITDMS explicitly state that data overload ‘could risk making their business operationally less effective’. Even more explicitly, 46% claim that, over the last three years, the unmanageability of their data has hindered their business’ ability to gain operational insight. A further 45% believe this problem will continue over the next three years.

Security Risks

The security landscape is constantly becoming more challenging. More complex distributed architectures, novel attack vectors, the increasingly professional nature of cyber criminals, and the commoditisation of hacking tools, all mean that businesses are constantly fighting to remain one step ahead of bad actors.

Alongside capable security systems, data plays a critical role in helping companies maintain their defences. A significant number 82% of UK ITDMs see their ability to extract meaningful insights from data as critical to detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats.

However, 67% of UK ITDMs also believe that the amount of data their company holds has increased their exposure to cybersecurity threats. A further 60% believe that low-value or unnecessary data is currently one of their top cybersecurity concerns. And 63% believe data volume will pose an even greater cybersecurity risk to their organization over the next three years.

Compliance Risks

Escalating data volumes are also making Compliance more challenging for UK businesses. 

64% of UK businesses find it ‘increasingly difficult to maintain compliance due to the constantly changing regulatory environment’, with GDPR (61%), The Data Protection Act 2018 (46%) and The UK AI Act (41%) all listed amongst ‘top three’ regulatory challenges for UK businesses.

While 80% of UK ITDMs understand that they will gain a competitive edge if their data is compliant, 64% of them think the volume of data they handle has actually made compliance more difficult over the last three years. A further 64% are worried about fines due to the non-compliance of their data.

Is ‘Bad’ or Unknown Data a Factor?

Taken together, these responses may explain why 58% of UK ITDMs claim to ‘fear the effects of the exponential rise in data accumulation within their organisation’.

Another factor is that many businesses simply lack insight into their data. On average ITDMs estimate they can only derive insight from just under 57% of the data that they hold. An enormous 86% believe ‘bad data’ could pose a threat to their organisation, and 57% even believe the consequences of ‘bad data sets’ could ‘cost them their job’.

Businesses Need an Effective Data Strategy in Place

As businesses onboard more data they’re facing more issues, particularly where data is unseen, unstructured, useless, or unmanaged. Digital resilience starts and ends with good data. Without visibility and control over their data, organisations risk non-compliance, security gaps, and could fall behind the competition.

All of which points towards the need for a robust data strategy. In the global Splunk Data Management Report, we found that the most successful companies worldwide focus on the following components:

• Prioritise Data Quality: Companies that rely on clean and structured data achieve better results in decision-making and threat detection.
• Reuse Data: Utilising data for different applications saves costs and avoids redundancies.
• Data Federation Instead of Migration: Federated models allow companies to use data more efficiently without physically moving it.
• Unified Transparency: Companies using a unified data platform report better outcomes in terms of speed, efficiency, and security.

Data Management is Key to Digital Resilience

Data invites opportunity but also risk. This makes it critical that businesses are proactively mitigating their data deluge. By employing a clear strategy, capable technology, and a focus on quality and compliance, businesses can overcome the challenges of the Data Deluge while unlocking their competitive potential. 

Want to find out more about how good data management can improve cybersecurity and observability in the age of AI? Download our full report: The New Rules of Data Management.

[This online survey of [500 UK IT Decision Makers from companies of 250 employees or more was commissioned by Splunk and conducted by market research company OnePoll, in accordance with the Market Research Society's code of conduct. Data was collected between April 17th and 28th 2025.]