Study reveals shortage of Big Data experts in UK

The UK is suffering from a shortage of Big Data specialists, according to Europe’s largest Big Data community.

Acunu’s survey of 131 members from the Big Data London group found nearly 80% believe there are not enough Big Data experts in the country and as a result may not be ready to seize the Big Data business opportunities in 2013.

Manu Marchal, Acunu director and Big Data London organiser, said: “It’s easy to look at a skills shortage and blame a lack of training on traditional educational routes, but when you’re on the cutting edge of technology, you have to be teaching yourself most of the time.”

Only 13% claimed outsourcing to skilled Big Data workers outside of the UK as the reason for the shortage, and only 18% felt lucrative offshore roles are luring UK talent away. If more British based IT professionals are given the access to the software tools and skills most in demand, the UK is in a strong position to retain and grow its talent pool, said the report.  

More than three quarters of respondents said learning ‘on the job’ (80%) and ‘self-teaching’ (72%) are the best ways of keeping up to date with the latest big data skills, the figures showed.

The research also examined Big Data sector skills and found Hadoop to be the most sought after (82%). “Hadoop is becoming mainstream and it’s no surprise skills in the area are sought after, but it’s clear that the next wave is real time analytics, operational analytics, low latency analytics,” said Marchal.