• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, September 23, 2016

A new Forrester report projects that the market for Big-Data management tools will grow by double-digit rates. The report, “Big Data, Big Promises, Big Growth,” found the global market for big-data tools was $21.7 billion by the end of 2015. It  will grow at a 12.8% compound annual growth rate to reach $44.6 billion by 2021.

The report found that the fastest-growing segment in the Big Data tools space is nonrelational databases,  which Forrester projects will grow by 25% annually. These are databases that can support any type of data, or so-called “unstructured” data like texts, tweets, graphs, and video. These types of databases can support the vast amounts of data that’s being generated by individuals and companies, according to Jennifer Adams, senior forecast analyst, Forrester.

During a webinar this week, Adams pointed out that companies are now using Big-Data tools to help them turn data into actionable insights. She said Big Data can help identify the best customers, create personalized content, and resolve other issues.

Forrester defines Big Data as “the practices, processes and technologies that close the gap between the data available and the ability to turn it into business insights that allow companies to be competitive.”

Among the findings of the report:

-- Big-Data management tools are more critical today than ever, as companies look for new ways to manage and analyze the growing amount of customer data they have.

-- Nonrelational databases offer flexibility and scalability. They also accommodate any type of data and scale easily to support millions of users and hundreds of terabytes of data.

-- In 2016, nearly 40% of global data and analytics decision-makers say their firms are implementing and expanding Big-Data technology and solutions, and another 30% are planning to adopt Big Data in the next 12 months.

--While the U.S. is the largest market for Big-Data management solutions, Forrester projects higher rates of growth outside this market. European demand will grow at a slightly higher rate than that of the U.S., and the Asia Pacific market will grow the fastest.

-- In-memory data fabric projected to grow 29.6% from 2016 to 2021.In-memory computing allows real-time computations and transactions on large-scale data sets, orders of magnitude faster than what’s possible with traditional technologies.

Forrester’s forecast and analysis segmented Big-Data management solutions into six buckets: enterprise data warehouse, NoSQL, Hadoop, Big Data integration, data virtualization, and in-memory data fabric.

The Forrester report makes the findings of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Direct Marketing Association’s report on data released earlier this week all the more relevant.