The results of a June survey by IT research firm Gartner show that a growing number of companies are investing in big data, and more intend to do so in the future. Of the 302 businesses worldwide that were questioned about their big data practices and plans, 73 percent said they have already invested in big data or will begin within the next two years. That number is up from 64 percent in last year’s survey. Only 24 percent say they have no big data plans, down from 31 percent in 2013.

Forty-seven percent of North American companies have already invested in big data in some form, the highest rate of any region. Gartner’s press release points out that most of that investment is going to experimental plans, and that only 13 percent of businesses have fully developed big data strategies, up from 8 percent last year. Gartner research director Lisa Kart highlighted health care and retail as two of the sectors that are using big data to improve their customer services.

Gartner also notes the biggest challenge that businesses are likely to face with big data. As connectivity grows, there will be a greater volume of data available, but that can easily be handled by increasing storage space. Rather, it is the variety of data sources that is likely to pose problems.

Database management systems that employ an extract, transform, load (ETL) process can help with just this issue. ETL tools can parse an abundance of sources and convert information to a format that is easy to analyze and draw conclusions from. This way companies can make the most of big data without being overwhelmed by information.