Predictions 2015: The Data Economy Goes Mainstream

The data economy — the market system of buyers and sellers exchanging data to create insights and value — will dramatically expand in 2015. New data sources and new data analytics tools will become available through cloud services. There will be big data and small data, social data, passive data, and "data exhaust" to answer questions on market opportunities, operational efficiencies, public policy choices, and just about any issue facing humankind. Addressing the opportunities and challenges of the data economy will be front and center of the CIO's business technology (BT) agenda in 2015. CIOs will increasingly bring their own firm's data to market, giving many a role on both the demand-side and the supply-side of the burgeoning data economy — and elevating the strategic role of the CIO. This brief presents Forrester's predictions for how CIOs will respond to the intensifying data economy.