A new 2016 survey entitled "Big Data Executive Survey 2016" concludes that data variety is the top data priority for most firms. Seasoned data science practitioners have long known that data diversity and integration trumps volume for optimal decision-making.



The survey shows that most firms are struggling to find valuable, actionable insights from the huge mass of data and find it challenging to integrate multiple data sources - including new / old data, big / small data, and structured / unstructured data.

While the media hype focuses on "big data" the real opportunity and high value is in integrating diverse sources of smart data and using data science techniques to solve complex problems and make better decisions.