Advanced Analytics

What to do with all this data that's being collected and delivered in real time? Advanced analytics technology allows businesses "to cull deeper insight from more data," according to the Forrester report. Analysts and data science teams "will get better and faster at teasing understanding from piles of diverse data."

Business analytics has been one of the fastest growing areas of the IT industry in recent years and has created significant opportunities for many solution providers. Sales of business analytics software from established players such as SAS Institute to upstarts like Tableau reached $37.7 billion last year and are expected to grow almost 10 percent annually to $59.2 billion in 2018, according to IDC. Beyond software, business analytics services such as IBM's Watson are also attracting attention.