Digital now generating nearly half of revenue for UK businesses

With emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) transforming the way businesses operate, digital is now estimated to account for around 45% of revenue for UK companies; according to new research from Pure Storage.

Evolution, which surveyed senior IT staff from 500 UK businesses, found that 70% thought data should be shown as an asset on the company’s balance sheet, while 65% actually considered data to be more valuable than employees.

However, uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the incoming general data protection regulation (GDPR) has left many firms in “investment limbo”, with 76% of those surveyed claiming Brexit had affected their ability to plan and invest in technology innovation.

72% of respondents agreed that there was more demand in their business for real-time analytics and interactive simulations than this time last year, and, with use of public cloud expected to rise, an equivalent percentage (72%) thought that cloud and on-premise should complement one another rather than competing.

Despite this, 61% saw unstructured data as putting a lot of pressure on storage in their organisation and two thirds said their company had reduced usage of public cloud over the past year as a result of security concerns.

IT leaders cited technical complexity (44%) and the reliance on IT to deliver strategy (43%) as the biggest barriers to digital transformation, while storage was highlighted as a factor slowing down digital transformation in 62% of businesses.

James Petter, vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Pure Storage, commented: “UK business are clearly motivated to embrace digital, but in their desire to respond to customer demand, innovate quickly and forge new business models, storage and IT resources are being overwhelmed by new data demands.

“In today’s cloud era being data-driven is the new normal. Organisations need a data platform that enables them to capitalise on new insights from data simply, in real-time, across multiple cloud-environments. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ and choice and flexibility is key to successful digital transformation – not only for individual businesses, but the UK at large.”