2024 Data

Streaming Report
Breaking Down the Barriers to Business Agility & Innovation
2024 Data Streaming Report

Table of Contents
Click the page number on any page if you’d like to return to the Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

A Look at This Year’s Data Streaming Maturity Curve 5

Key Findings

Data Streaming Platforms Fuel Responsive Businesses and AI Adoption 6

Data Streaming ROI and Investment Soar Higher 15

Data Streaming Platforms Power Business Value with Data Products 25

Data Hurdles Loom, but a Path Forward Exists 33

Level Up Your Data Streaming Game 42

Use Confluent to Your Advantage 43

Methodology / Survey Demographics 44

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2024 Data Streaming Report Executive Summary

Executive
Summary
In today’s dynamic business landscape, responsiveness is key to success.

And tapping into continuously streaming data–wherever it lives—is fundamental to this constant
pursuit of organizational agility. Why? Simply because it’s this real-time data that can unveil what
your customers crave, how your business operates, and what’s on the horizon—so you can act
on it quickly and efficiently.

Relying on slow, incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date, and ungoverned data, doesn’t really cut it
anymore.

Findings from our 2024 Data Streaming Report: “Breaking Down the Barriers to Business
Agility & Innovation”—where we tap into insights from 4,110 IT leaders—underpin how this
growing need for real-time means organizations are actively prioritizing data streaming
investments. 51% of surveyed IT leaders cite data streaming as a top strategic priority for
IT investments in 2024 compared to 44% in 2023. What’s more, 68% expect the use of this
technology to continue to grow over the next two years.

The survey also reveals how 79% of IT leaders cite data streaming platforms (DSPs) as pivotal
to realizing business agility, 63% cite DSPs as an accelerator for AI adoption, and 93% cite
DSPs as the key to overcoming pervasive obstacles like data silos. By incorporating a range of
capabilities, including stream processing and data governance, DSPs enable instant access to
reliable data—unlocking endless use cases and value for the business.

Dive into the report to explore the impressive ROI potential of data streaming (41% of IT leaders
report an ROI of 5x or more)—and learn how you can harness the power of DSPs to drive
transformation and operate at the speed of modern business.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

“
Data streaming technology has become a key enabler of innovation, driving real-time
experiences for our 100 million customers today, including more personalization and fraud
mitigation. You can think about the volume of the transactions that are going through - streaming
billions of transactions daily… Confluent [helps in] solving for many of those use cases.”

~ NISHA PALIWAL
MANAGING VICE PRESIDENT OF ENTERPRISE DATA TECHNOLOGY
CAPITAL ONE

“
Data streaming is crucial to driving digital transformation at L’Oréal, which in turn helps
us increase agility to meet our consumers’ rapidly changing needs for innovation and
personalization. In a world where we envision having data at our fingertips, data streaming helps
set our data in motion by facilitating real-time data flows between our systems and applications.”

~ SINDHU PRASANNA
EVENT-DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE LEAD
L’OREAL

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 2024 Data Streaming Report

A Look at This Year’s

Data Streaming 1 %

Maturity Curve
Data streaming is a strategic enabler
with all qualities of Level 4, plus
streams managed as a product

Level 5
Based on our observations, the typical data streaming journey
for an organization starts with evaluation or pre-production
activity (Level 1) and matures up a curve, ending with data
streaming broadly embedded across the enterprise (Level 5).

This year, we specifically looked at how those with more

10 %
Several deployments in production
pervasive, enterprise-wide data streaming deployments are for critical systems with data reuse
realizing stronger return on investments (ROI) and business and integrations across business
benefits, including delivering rich customer experiences and units and a common operating
model established
improving cybersecurity.

Level 4

58 %
Deployments in production for
a few critical systems with data
and usage siloed across teams

Level 3

23 %
Projects identified and deployed
for noncritical application

Level 2 Explore our section on Key Finding 2

8 %
to see how many organizations are
seeing 5x to 10x ROI: 64% in Level 4
Experiments in pre-production
compared to 56% in Level 3. There,
we also zoom in on the four specific
Level 1
areas—including driving responsive
operations and AI innovation—where
benefits increase remarkably with
each stage of maturity.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

KEY FINDING 1

Data Streaming Platforms

Fuel Responsive Businesses and
AI Adoption
RESPONSIVENESS IN BUSINESS is about being adaptive, quick, and versatile. This includes keeping
up with technological advances and harnessing them to drive business benefits.

Our findings reveal that 51% of IT leaders cite data streaming platforms (DSPs) as enabling their
organizations to be truly nimble—by providing real-time visibility into operations and customer
interactions—and 63% say DSPs extensively or significantly fuel AI progress—by building the real-
time data foundation needed to propel such initiatives.

But before delving deeper, let’s first define a data streaming platform: It’s a software
platform that empowers businesses to stream, process, connect, and govern real-
time data streams—making your data trustworthy and reusable at the source, so you
can drive agility and innovation.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

“
At Allianz, we are modernizing our core insurance system by
replacing legacy technologies and migrating over 75% of our
applications into the cloud. Data streaming plays a crucial
role in this modernization process. A data streaming platform
like Confluent allows Allianz to quickly react, respond,
and adapt to ever-changing data in real time, which is key
to driving exceptional customer experience, competitive
differentiation, and revenue growth.”

~ BRUNO FONTOURA COSTA

HEAD OF GLOBAL INTEGRATION SERVICES AND ARCHITECTURE
ALLIANZ TECHNOLOGY

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

Driver of Business Agility and Visibility

Data streaming platforms are essential catalysts for success, enabling

businesses to achieve their top-of-mind priorities—including gaining
business visibility and agility—by unlocking the full value of their data.

From driving innovation to maximizing cost-effectiveness, DSPs help

organizations to stay competitive and thrive by enabling them to
quickly detect and respond to emerging risks and opportunities in the
current environment.

While 88% of respondents cite continuous and up-to-date business

visibility as an extensive or significant priority, 80% see DSPs as a key
or important enabler in achieving that visibility. 84% cite management
or control of operational costs as an extensive or significant priority,
with 76% citing DSPs as enabling that cost-effectiveness.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

How much do the following matter to your organization?

Continuous and up-to-date business visibility
44% 44% 11%

Joined-up visibility across the business

38% 50% 11%

Rapid detection and management of risks

46% 39% 14%

Ability to model and predict business outcomes

37% 47% 14%

Ability to adapt easily and quickly to change

41% 43% 15%

Time to market for new products and services

34% 44% 18%

Management/control of operational costs

40% 44% 14%

How much do you see DSP technology enabling the following?

Continuous and up-to-date business visibility
36% 44% 18%

Joined-up visibility across the business

38% 47% 14%

Rapid detection and management of risks

41% 39% 19%

Ability to model and predict business outcomes

34% 45% 19%

Ability to adapt easily and quickly to change

36% 43% 19%

Time to market for new products and services

28% 45% 22%

Management/control of operational costs

33% 43% 22%

Extensively Significantly Moderately Not that much / Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

The Golden Ticket to Fast-Tracking

AI Adoption

Your AI is only as good as the data you feed it. And data streaming platforms have
emerged as a key enabler for AI adoption—allowing businesses to tap into continuously
enriched, trustworthy, and contextualized data for quickly scaling and building real-time
AI applications.

As more organizations look to leverage AI/ML for unlocking competitive advantages by

driving innovation and optimizing processes—DSPs enable the democratization of AI/ML
for a broader range of use cases.

95% of IT leaders see DSPs helping or possibly helping with broadening access to
different data sources to contextualize models. This is followed by 93% citing DSPs
ensuring their data meets appropriate quality standards and 90% saying DSPs keep track
of data fed into models for governance purposes.

63% 95%
said “Yes” to 3 or said “Yes” to at
more benefits least one benefit

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

In what ways does a DSP ease the

path to enterprise-level AI/ML adoption?

Broadening access to different data Ensuring that data ingested meets

sources to contextualize models appropriate quality standards

50% 45% 3% 56% 37% 6%

Keeping track of data fed into models for Keeping Al models up-to-date with fresh,
governance purposes validated data streams

52% 38% 8% 53% 36% 7%

Injecting fresh/real-time contextual data Generally democratizing the use of Al/ML

into Al prompts/requests across the business

48% 41% 7% 42% 46% 8%

Extensively Significantly Moderately Not that much / Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

Traits That Turbocharge

Your Business

But what makes for a good data streaming platform? The short answer is
comprehensive functionality. This includes the ability to provide seamless
connectivity, powerful stream processing, scalable and reliable data delivery,
and robust governance capabilities—so businesses can make the most of their
data and unlock business value.

The survey results confirm the importance of several platform features: 83%
of respondents cite governance as mandatory or highly desirable, followed by
80% citing high operational scalability and resilience, 78% citing connectors to
mainstream applications, and 77% citing embedded data processing/enrichment
capabilities.

But businesses are also looking beyond core functionality—81% cite strong
partner and technology ecosystem as a key consideration when choosing DSPs.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

When considering a DSP, how would you rate

these capabilities?

Connectors to mainstream applications

34% 44% 19%

Easy integration with Al/ML platforms

37% 40% 19%

Embedded data processing/enrichment

31% 46% 21%

Support for both sync and async models

28% 43% 23%

High operational scalability and resilience

39% 41% 16%

Deploy flexibly across cloud and on-prem

32% 44% 19%

Inline security/governance enforcement

42% 41% 14%

Built-in discovery and access mechanisms

28% 46% 22%

Natural support for shift-left processing/governance

24% 43% 26%

Strong partner and technology ecosystem

36% 46% 15%

Mandatory Highly desirable Worthwhile Little or no relevance Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 1

ACTIONAB LE ADVICE

The Time Is Now

The first step to unlocking the maximum value from your data is ensuring it is trustworthy,
discoverable, reusable, and governable. Plus, the uptick in AI projects, especially generative AI,
means getting ready access to reliable data has become more important than ever.

W E S U G G E S T YO U :

Develop a comprehensive data strategy that

1 outlines business objectives and how data
streaming can support them.

Assess your data landscape—this includes

2 identifying current challenges and needs.

Continue to foster a data-driven culture—this includes

3 offering educational opportunities and building a
leadership team that prioritizes data initiatives.

As your enterprise consolidates data streaming initiatives, invest

in company-wide stream processing services and governance
technologies to generate better ROI with improved data reuse.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

KEY FINDING 2

Data Streaming ROI &

Investments Soar Higher
AS BUSINESSES LEARN TO DO MORE WITH LESS, proving tech investment ROI has become even
more critical. This ensures they are achieving value, despite limited resources.

84% of IT leaders cite 2x to 10x return on data streaming investments—and 41% cite an ROI of 5x
or more—as it continues to drive significant benefits across a wide range of business functions
and industries.

41% of IT leaders cite an ROI of 5x or more

on their data streaming investments

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

“
Data streaming helps us power key use cases—including
real-time data warehousing for real-time analytics and
adaptive bitrate streaming—where we can use real-time data
to make timely decisions and deliver better experiences for
our users. Ultimately, it makes us more profitable, so data
streaming is extremely critical to our business and has a
huge impact.”

~ BABAK BASHIRI
DIRECTOR OF DATA ENGINEERING
VIMEO

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

With Greater Maturity Comes

Higher ROI

Our survey findings reveal a clear correlation between data streaming

maturity and the achievement of higher levels of return on investment.
As organizations progress through stages of maturity, the proportion
achieving significant ROI increases dramatically.

Today, 64% of IT leaders that have reached Level 4 say their companies
are achieving or anticipating 5x to 10x ROI, compared to 56% of those
in Level 3. Last year, these numbers were 63% for Level 4 and 47% for
Level 3.

But even companies at earlier stages in the maturity curve see excellent
results with data streaming: 67% of those in Level 2 say they are
achieving or anticipating 2x to 5x return, compared to 64% in 2023.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

How much do you see a data streaming platform

enabling the following?

FY 2023 FY 2024

Real-time enterprise

22% 50% 17% 12% 44% 29%

Foundational integration

10% 53% 31% 14% 50% 23%

Critical silos

8% 39% 39% 9% 47% 35%

Early adoption

3% 22% 42% 2% 25% 42% 14%

Exploration & learning

(Not enough experience to say) (Not enough experience to say)

10X return (or more) 5X return (or more) 2X return (or more) 1X (or more) Less than 1X / Not measurable / Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

Delivering Multifaceted Business

& Tech Benefits

The strategic value and importance of data streaming is reflected in the breadth
and depth of benefits companies are reporting across all industries—ranging from
transforming customer experience to driving innovation with AI/ML.

96% of respondents cite achieving or expecting significant benefits from their data
streaming activities when it comes to creating responsive customer experiences,
followed by 95% citing improving cybersecurity and enabling data-driven
operations, and 90% citing enabling product and service innovation around AI/ML.

Plus, the benefits increase markedly with each stage of maturity. For example,
87% in Level 4 realize significant data streaming benefits for creating customer
experiences compared to 72% in Level 3.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

Have you gained significant benefits from data

streaming in these areas?

Creating rich and responsive customer experiences

68% 28%

Improving cybersecurity and digital risk management

65% 30%

Enabling more effective IT monitoring and management

63% 31%

Enabling more data-driven operational decisions within the business

61% 34%

Increased observability across the entire business for executives

59% 33%

Improved collaboration and alignment between analysts and developers

58% 36%

Enabling you to offer new and different products and services (to customers)
57% 35%

Driving automation and responsiveness of internal processes

57% 36%

Increased senior level appetite/enthusiasm for real time visibility

55% 36%

Enabling product/service innovation around Al/ML in particular

51% 39%

Reduced time to market for new products and services

49% 38%

Yes No but expecting Not expecting Unsure / NA

20
2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

Achieved or anticipated benefits in key areas

by maturity level

90%
Creating rich and Level 5
87%
responsive customer Level 4
72%
experiences Level 3
58%
Level 2

88%
Driving automation Level 5
69%
and responsiveness Level 4
57%
of internal processes Level 3
53%
Level 2

68%
Enabling product/ Level 5
72%
service innovation Level 4
51%
around Al/ML Level 3
45%
Level 2

86%
Enabling more data- Level 5
78%
driven operational Level 4
60%
business decisions Level 3
58%
Level 2

Yes No but expecting Not expecting Unsure / NA

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

A Strategic Priority for IT Investments

Our survey results show data streaming has been firmly established as a core
component of the modern technology stack and will continue to be a key investment
focus area for organizations in the coming year and beyond.

While, with the rise in cyberattacks, security continues to be one of the top
strategic priorities or an important priority for IT investments (96%)—it’s followed by
investments in data governance (87%), data streaming (86%), and AI and ML (81%).

As more organizations leverage real-time data to drive competitive advantage, our

findings show a general uptick in investments around more intelligent and real-time
capabilities. 74% say investments in GenAI will trend up over the coming two years,
followed by data streaming (68%).

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

How does investment in the following fit into your 2024 agenda?
Security and security management
66% 30% 4%
Data management, protection and governance
53% 34% 11%
Data streaming technology
51% 35% 12%
Al and Machine Learning
46% 35% 14%
IT Ops automation, inc Al-Ops
38% 40% 16%
Cloud strategy, adoption and management
38% 44% 15%
Software delivery, inc Dev and DevOps
36% 49% 12%
Data center transformation/modernization
36% 43% 16%
Workplace or workforce transformation
32% 42% 20%
Edge Computing and/or loT
30% 44% 16%

One of our top strategic priorities Secondary but important priority Lower priority but should be higher

Not a big focus Unsure

How will the following technologies trend up or down over

the next two years?

Emerging Generative Al technologies 30%

74% 5%

Data streaming and continuous flowing of data 68% 5%

Data warehouses containing pre-processed data 59% 6%

Custom point-to-point application integration 54% 8%

Traditional batch-based data pipeline and ETL tools 37% 18%

Trending up Trending down No change / Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 2

ACTIONAB LE ADVICE

Secure C-Suite Buy-In

The positive correlation between data streaming maturity and significant business returns
underscores the importance of a long-term, strategic view of data streaming investments.
It also highlights the value of advancing beyond initial, siloed use cases to a more
integrated approach that leverages data streaming across the enterprise.

Start with securing C-suite engagement and sponsorship.

1 Write a short business case that articulates both quantitative
and qualitative benefits. Ensure you highlight how the
technology can help save operational costs, drive innovation,
and mitigate risks.

Qualitative benefits include the breadth of use cases and

2 solutions it can unlock. For inferring quantitative value, start
with showcasing how simplifying and accelerating new use
case development results in shorter time-to-market.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

KEY FINDING 3

Data Streaming Platforms

Power Business Value With
Data Products
FORWARD-THINKING ORGANIZATIONS are rethinking ways to broaden and simplify data
access and reuse—to unlock the full value of their data. A big step forward in that direction?
Embracing product thinking for data.

91% IT leaders are banking on data streaming platforms to drive their data goals. Additionally,
72% cite significant benefits from embracing a data product approach.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

“
Everything we do is in real time because batch processing
is an old way of thinking. The longer your data waits, the
less value it has. So, as data comes through, you need to
be able to act on it, or enrich it quickly. Confluent enables
this for us.”

~ RAJAY RAI
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
TRUST BANK

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

Unlocking the Data Treasure Chest

Designed to help businesses maximize the value of their data assets in a

systematic and sustainable way, data products are trustworthy datasets
purpose-built for easy sharing and reuse.

For example, in financial services you might use data streams for
accounts and payments to build a fraud detection system and then reuse
that exact same data product to build a customer payment notification
system for a banking application.

In fact, our findings reveal that 81% of respondents strongly agree or

agree that managing data streams as products further enhances stream
reuse potential.

75% of IT leaders also cite that decoupling of data producers and data
consumers, which data streaming platforms do, enables easier reuse of
data streams.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

How much do you agree or disagree with these statements?

Real-time flows of data streams promote consistency and a more accurate and joined-up business view

43% 40% 14% 2%

The decoupling of data producers and data consumers enables easier reuse of data streams
27% 27% 48% 20%
48% 2% 20% 2%

Defining and managing data streams as ‘products’ further enhances stream reuse potential

32% 49% 16% 2%

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree / Strongly Disagree / Unsure

How important do you see DSP technology to achieving your data

and information related goals?

Critical

Important
9% Useful

Useful

36% Critical
Limited or no value / Unsure

55% Important

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

Tapping Into the Potential of

Data Products

Data drives some of today’s most important business use cases. By eliminating the
data mess created by point-to-point connections, data products enable instant
access to reliable and trustworthy data. The result? It helps businesses solve new
problems, unlock endless use cases, and drive agility.

Respondents highlight several key benefits of data products, including more

confident data sharing across business units and new opportunities for innovation
and value creation through easier data discovery and reuse.

98% of respondents cite data products as compelling or worthwhile in enabling

more confident data sharing across business units, followed by more meaningful
cost allocation or charging based on usage metrics (91%), and more robust risk
management (90%).

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

How would you rate the benefits of data products?

Enabling more confident data sharing across business units
52% 46%
46% 3%

Promoting a focus on business goals rather than technology

39% 50% 11% 1%
48%

Fostering a culture of viewing data as shared enterprise assets

40% 46% 13% 1%
44%

Establishing foundations for secure external data exchange

44% 44% 11% 1%
33%

Enabling innovation through easier discovery and repurposing of data

46% 44% 44% 10% 1%

Improving agility through increased decoupling and abstraction

40% 44% 47% 10% 1%

More robust risk management from embedded policy enforcement

47% 43% 43% 8% 1%

More meaningful cost allocation/charging based on usage metrics

42% 49% 8% 1%

Compelling Worthwhile Minimal Unsure

51%
responded “Compelling”
72% 96%
responded “Compelling” responded “Compelling”
for 4 or more benefits for 3 or more benefits for at least one benefit

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

The Anatomy of a Good Data Product

While the rationale for data products is clear, how do we know when a data product is well-designed?

Our survey results highlight several key elements, including data lineage and well-defined governance
policies, that need to be incorporated into the design and delivery of data products. This ensures
organizations can create more robust, reliable, and valuable data assets that drive better business
outcomes.

89% of organizations cite clear data specifications including schema as always or often important when
publishing data streams as data products, followed by 86% citing operational management, and 81% citing
data governance policies.

Are the following important when publishing streams

as data products?

Documented specification - e.g. schema, data dictionary, access methods

41% 48% 10% 1%

Documented data lineage - e.g. upstream sources, transform logic

36% 44% 17% 2%

Data governance policies - e.g. security, compliance, legal terms

48% 33% 16% 2%

Documented ‘contract’ - e.g. SLA, update frequency, support tiers

34% 44% 20% 2%

Lifecycle management - e.g. requirements, roadmap, deprecation policy

36% 44% 17% 2%

Operational management - e.g. monitoring, troubleshooting, support

43% 43% 13% 1%

Always Often Sometimes Generally not relevant / Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 3

ACTIONAB LE ADVICE

Drive Data Product Adoption

Embracing a systematic approach to data products adoption can drive significant incremental
value to businesses. While it may seem daunting, it can be mobilized with the following
framework:

Prioritize mission-critical use cases that matter to your

1 organization—those that drive innovation, reduce costs,
mitigate risks or enhance customer experience.

Identify relevant data inputs for critical consumption

2 patterns, group them by data types and /or domains and map
them to source systems.

Determine if a combination of data assets can be reused to

3 drive value across multiple use cases and functional areas by
converting them into a data product.

Evaluate if the data needed for those use cases are readily
4 available, timely, trustworthy, and of high quality, among
other things, to migrate them to data streaming.

Engage your business and functional areas from the get go. As you scale
adoption, ensure you have standards and best practices in place to drive
success with data products.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

KEY FINDING 4

Data Challenges Loom,

but a Path Forward Exists
DATA IS THE CROWN JEWEL of modern businesses. But several speed bumps get in the way
of driving business success with data.

76% of IT leaders cite five or more data-related challenges impacting their organizations,
including siloed data and governance-related challenges.

The good news? 94% cite five or more areas where data streaming platforms can help
combat these challenges in most and many situations.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

“
Like a lot of high-performing orgs, NASA is constantly
reevaluating its tech stack. A self-organized Kafka
community of practice emerged among teams managing
around 15 different projects. Our engineers and architects
were all sharing the struggles and lessons learned from
adopting data streaming in their missions. We knew real-time
streaming was something we needed to invest in and quickly
started looking into bringing Confluent Cloud on as an
enterprise service so we could offer it more broadly across
the organization.”

~ JOE FOSTER
CLOUD COMPUTING PROGRAM MANAGER
NASA

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

Mind the Gap: Top Hurdles

Having access to the right data at the right time is crucial to gaining timely insights
into market trends and customer needs—insights that ultimately drive the business
agility that’s key to long-term, strategic success.

However, most organizations still face multiple data hurdles that get in the way of
timely decision-making. 66% cite inconsistency of data sources as a major issue or
frequent challenge, followed by 65% citing uncertain timeliness or quality, and 64%
citing data spread across separate silos.

Plus, while data governance is a business imperative for safely scaling and sharing
data across the organization—60% of respondents highlight governance-related
disjoints as another major or frequent challenge.

76% 98%
cite 5 or cite at least
more challenges one challenge

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

How much are these a challenge for you?

Data spread across separate silos

12% 52% 35%

Inconsistency of data sources

21% 45% 32%

Fragmented ownership of data

19% 44% 36%

Unwillingness of owners to share

18% 40% 39%

Governance related disjoints

17% 43% 38%

Discovering the data that exists

16% 43% 40%

Accessing the data that exists

15% 40% 44%

Uncertain timeliness or quality

18% 47% 33%

Data is too often out-of-date

18% 44% 36%

Uncertain data lineage

17% 43% 36%

Major issue for us Frequent challenge Generally not a problem N/A (not yet active with Al/ML) / Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

AI Rush Reveals Hidden Hurdles

Getting access to the right data has become even more critical with the onslaught of
AI, especially generative AI.

But as more companies ramp up adoption, additional data challenges are cropping
up—including those driven by a lack of in-house AI expertise. In fact, 70% of
respondents cite three or more challenges that get in the way when it comes to
scaling AI/ML initiatives.

65% of respondents cite a lack of AI-related skills as a major issue or frequent

challenge, followed by 64% citing challenges around data lineage and data
fragmentation, and 63% citing insufficient infrastructure for real-time data
processing.

70% 97%
cite 3 or cite at least
more challenges one challenge

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

How much of these are a challenge for you when it comes to

accelerating AI/ML adoption?

23% 42% 31% 19% 45% 32%

Insufficient skills and expertise in managing Ambiguity surrounding data lineage,

Al projects and workflows timeliness, and quality assurance

19% 44% 34% 19% 45% 33%

Limited ability to seamlessly integrate Fragmented ownership of data across disparate

new data sources systems

13% 50% 33%

Major issue for us

Frequent challenge

Generally not a problem

N/A (not yet active with Al/ML) / Unsure

Insufficient infrastructure for real-time

data processing

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

Paving the Path to Success

Tackling data challenges head-on is crucial for maximizing business

success in a data-driven world.

Our findings confirm, data streaming platforms help organizations

address many of these pervasive challenges that hinder real-time, data-
driven operations. DSPs ensure data is available in real-time, everywhere
it’s needed—so businesses can focus on accelerating innovation instead
of navigating the maze of point-to-point connections.

A whopping 93% respondents say a data streaming platform helps

them break down data silos in most and many situations, followed by
88% citing help with accessing the data that exists, 86% citing help
with discovering existing data, and 84% citing help with addressing
governance-related disjoints.

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

To what degree can a DSP help mitigate these issues?

Data spread across separate silos

43% 50% 6%

Inconsistency of data sources

34% 45% 19%

Fragmented ownership of data

36% 48% 15%

Unwillingness of owners to share

26% 42% 28%

Governance related disjoints

32% 52% 14%

Discovering the data that exists

40% 46% 13%

Accessing the data that exists

44% 44% 12%

Uncertain timeliness or quality

28% 49% 20%

Data is too often out-of-date

28% 44% 26%

Uncertain data lineage

28% 46% 22%

In most situations In many situations Rarely Unsure

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2024 Data Streaming Report Key Finding 4

ACTIONAB LE ADVICE

Rise Above Data Hurdles

Ensure you are investing in data tools that solve business problems. Niche tools can
appear interesting but integrating them remains a challenge.

W E S U G G E S T YO U :

Enforce governance at data production. Reestablishing

1 trustworthiness later is almost always harder.

Ensure data producers create data structures with

consumption patterns in mind. This means building data
2 streams that are biased toward composability with other
streams rather than producing bespoke data tailored to a
niche use case.

Make data discoverable to encourage reuse rather than

recreation. Otherwise, different teams are almost certain
to make different assumptions in how they model and
3 transform data even for similar purposes, which can
impact critical business functions like decision making
and risk management.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

Level Up Your Data

Streaming Game
As you advance your data streaming journey, it’s important
to keep in mind that technology is not a silver bullet. Having
the right foundation in place ensures you are driving the
desired business benefits with data streaming.

Here’s a checklist to help propel your data streaming initiatives:

▢ Start with securing buy-in: It is impossible to successfully

implement and ramp-up adoption of any new technology,
without the full buy-in of key stakeholders who care enough to
drive change.

▢ Highlight current situation vs. target state: This will help you
create your roadmap to achieving an enterprise-wide data
streaming platform that allows for managing data as a product.

▢ Outline required capabilities: This includes budget, and a

focus on building awareness, skills, and expertise—along with
change management to drive increased adoption.

▢ Chart metrics and ROI: As you move up the data streaming

curve, determine what will be measured to test success and
track cost savings and opportunities along the way.

▢ Showcase proof-points: Show where this has been done

before and the value it has delivered.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

Use Confluent to Your Advantage

No matter where you are on your data streaming journey, Confluent has you covered.

That’s why organizations worldwide—including NASA, Capital One, L’Oréal, Vimeo, Allianz, and Trust
Bank—are leveraging Confluent’s complete data streaming platform to unlock the full value of their
data, no matter where it resides.

By empowering users to stream, connect, govern, and process data as continuous, real-time data
streams everywhere, Confluent enables businesses to bring new applications to market faster,
deliver exceptional customer experiences, and drive data-driven backend operations.

Interested in learning more about data streaming and how Confluent powers trustworthy data
products so businesses can unlock limitless use cases? We’ve got you covered:

Watch the webinar to learn why data streaming platforms are

1 essential to businesses everywhere.

Watch the webinar to learn how a modern approach to data

2 pipelines that includes streaming data can help you get the
right data to the right teams in the right format at the right time.

Learn why Forrester has named Confluent a leader in The

3 Forrester Wave™: Streaming Data Platforms, Q4 2023.

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2024 Data Streaming Report

Methodology

Research sample size: For the third installment of our annual Data Streaming Report, we teamed
up with Freeform Dynamics and Radma Research to gather responses from 4,110 IT leaders familiar
with data streaming, varying from little to significant experience.

Respondents: Survey respondents hold various strategic and leadership positions, including
C-suite, directors, vice-presidents, managers, senior contributors, and senior consultants, in
companies with 500 or more employees.

Industries at a glance: Respondents represent a variety of industries, including technology,

financial services, government/public sector, manufacturing, healthcare, media/entertainment, non-
profit, professional services, research/education, retail, transportation/logistics, travel/hospitality,
and utilities/telecom.

Geographical distribution: The pool of respondents spans 12 different countries, including the
United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Spain, the
United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

By organization size By job level

500 to 999 employees 24% Senior Contributor 12%

1,000 to 2,499 employees 27% Manager level 42%

2,500 to 4,999 employees 21% Director level 20%

5,000 to 9,999 employees 14% Vice-President level 8%

10,000 or more employees 14% C-suite position 17%

Senior Consultant 1%

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2024 Data Streaming Report

By industry By geography

Financial Services 13% Australia 7%

Gov/Public Sector 9% Canada 12%

France 8%
Construction 5%
Germany 8%
Healthcare 6%
India 12%
Manufacturing 11%
Indonesia 5%

Media and/or Entertainment 2% Japan 6%

Non-profit/Charity Singapore 4%
1%
Spain 7%
Professional services 6%
UAE 4%
Research/Education 3%
United Kingdom 12%

Retail and/or wholesale 11% United States of 15%

America
Technology 24%

Transport/Logistics 5%

Travel/Hospitality 2%

Utilities/Telecom 3%

Other 1%

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