According to the 2022 State of Data Governance and Empowerment Report, data quality has overtaken data security as the top driver of data governance initiatives, with 41% of those surveyed agreeing that their business decision-making relies fundamentally on trustworthy, quality data. At the same time, however, 45% of IT leaders say that data quality is the biggest detractor from ROI in data governance efforts. While they recognize its importance, they’re struggling to improve the quality of their data, and thus the ability to strategically and maximally leverage data in practice.

The report released by Quest Software, in collaboration with the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), also revealed that business leaders struggle not only to make sense of their data, but to locate it and use it in the first place, with 42% of survey respondents saying at least half of their data was “dark data” – retained by the organization, but unused, unmanageable and unfindable. An influx in dark data and a lack of data visibility often leads to downstream bottlenecks, impeding the accuracy and effectiveness of operational data.

While the challenges of data visibility and observability differ across industries, DataOps was overwhelmingly recognized as the primary solution to drive forward data empowerment. 9 in 10 people surveyed agreed that strengthening DataOps capabilities improves data quality, visibility and access issues across their businesses.

The biggest opportunities to improve DataOps accuracy and efficiency lie in investing in automated technologies and deployment of time-saving tools, such as metadata management. Currently, only 37% of respondents describe their DataOps processes as automated, and a similarly small proportion report having automated data cataloging and mapping today (36% and 35% respectively).