Confluent unveiled its 2024 Data Streaming Report: Breaking Down the Barriers to Business Agility & Innovation. The report highlights how data streaming is transforming Indian businesses, driving innovation, accelerating AI adoption, and enhancing customer experiences. With 508 IT leaders with experience of data streaming from mid to large Indian companies (over 500 employees), the survey highlights the crucial role data streaming plays in enabling businesses to maximize their data’s potential.
According to the survey, 95% of India’s IT leaders with experience of data streaming reported a remarkable 2-10 times return on investment from their data streaming initiatives, underscoring the critical role of real-time data in India’s digital economy. Additionally, 94% of India’s respondents prioritize data streaming as a key IT investment in 2024, surpassing global figures and ranking highest among the surveyed countries. This trend not only highlights the importance of data technologies but also signifies India’s proactive approach towards advanced data management and utilization.
In a highly dynamic Indian market, responsiveness is the key to unlocking competitive advantage. Slow, inconsistent, outdated, or ungoverned data is detrimental to success because it’s unreliable and can lead to bad decision-making. It’s imperative to leverage continuously streaming data to find insights so organizations can act efficiently and quickly.
“The growing internet penetration throughout India and a stable government are creating numerous opportunities for businesses, and also contributing to the growth of the startup ecosystem in India. With increased competition and a conducive business environment, more organizations are waking up to the importance of real-time data for delivering better customer experiences, driving AI/ML innovation, and unlocking new revenue streams,” said Rubal Sahni, Area Vice President and Country Manager for India at Confluent. “Our findings that data streaming is one of the top IT investment priorities for Indian firms echoes the increased demand we have seen for a real-time data streaming infrastructure. Data streaming technologies are delivering exceptional returns. We are dedicated to supporting Indian organizations in their journey, enabling them to leverage their data in real-time and create more value.”
Key takeaways from the report include:
Data Streaming Boosts ROI, Cybersecurity, and Innovation in Indian Businesses
As businesses learn to do more with less, proving the ROI of tech investments has become even more critical. The report shows that data streaming pays off across every industry and that organizations of all sizes are achieving value, despite limited resources.
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95% of India’s IT leaders cite 2x to 10x return on data streaming investments.
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96% stated that data streaming improved or is expected to improve cybersecurity and new products and services to customers.
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95% improved or expected to improve product and service innovation when using AI/ML.
Data Streaming Propels India’s AI Adoption
GenAI is top of mind for many companies, but for AI models to generate accurate and relevant results, the data must be trustworthy, in the right format, and as real-time as possible. Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) has emerged as a common pattern for building GenAI-enabled applications by connecting general-purpose LLM models to domain-specific data while allowing granular access controls and minimizing hallucinations. Data streaming enriches RAG-enabled workloads with trustworthy and contextual data in real-time from systems that power the business. Data streaming can efficiently transform data into the right format for use in AI applications.
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98% are confident that data streaming eases AI/ML adoption
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85% state investments in GenAI will trend up in the coming two years.
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74% cite data streaming platforms extensively or significantly fuel AI progress by building the real-time data foundation needed to propel these initiatives.
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92% note data streaming platforms keep track of data fed into models for governance purposes.
As organizations look to broaden and simplify data access and reusability, more are thinking about organizing their data into data products. Data products are live, refined, fully governed, and ready-to-use data assets that are instantly discoverable, contextualized, trustworthy, and reusable for many use cases. Data products allow organizations to reuse data across a variety of use cases to save costs and time.
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92% of India’s respondents are investing in data streaming platforms to drive their data goals, which include data product creation.
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80% cite significant benefits from embracing a data product approach.
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Notable benefits of data products are:
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98% cite data products as compelling or worthwhile in enabling more confident data sharing across business units.
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92% note more meaningful cost allocation or charging based on usage metrics.
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88% state more robust risk management.
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Data Streaming Platforms Solve Challenges of Data Accessibility and Prevent Data Silos
Siloed data can hinder a company’s ability to operate efficiently and make data-driven decisions. To overcome this, businesses need to move toward a data streaming platform that establishes a central nervous system unifying their data.
The 2024 Data Streaming Report shows that data streaming platforms help address data accessibility challenges by connecting applications and systems in real time. This ensures data is always available where needed, allowing companies to focus on accelerating innovation instead of navigating complex data connections.
For India:
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82% of IT leaders cite five or more data-related challenges impacting their organizations, including siloed data and governance-related problems.
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The most common problems data streaming can solve include:
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92% say data streaming helps break down data silos in most or many situations
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90% note data streaming helps to access existing data
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84% cite data streaming helps discover existing data
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81% state data streaming helps address governance-related problems
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