Pressure to plan for artificial intelligence (AI) Projects Has Led It Leaders to Keep Data that might only be used on only on more Single-use data That fills storage never to be accessed against.
At the same time, pressure on costs and the desire to operate more sustainally has become more challenging because it departments cannot identify data to deleter Forever.
That is some of the key findings of a survey by storage and Data Management Supplier Netapp, which questioned more than 1,000 data manners or architects in the uk in January 2025.
In the survey, 92% of that that is questioned acknowledged the impact of single use data and want to mitigate its effect on Sustainability, energy use and storage capacityBut see tackling it as challenging.
The survey found that businesses expect their data footprint to grow by 50% as a result of ai projects, Although it also found that lots of data remains unused.
More Than One Third (37.5%) of Business Data is Believed to Be Unused Generally, While One-Fifth of Respondents Report that more than 50% of their data is unuses, which Affects Data Storage Costs and Eneregies Use, as well as an organization's ability to efficiently manage data.
Matt watts, Chief Technology Evangelist at Netapp, said: “British businesses were the benefits and opoportunities presented by Ai, Whilee Reduction the Carbon FootPrint of that Data. Single-uus data is a key point of this puzzle, and businesses must continue to invest more in reviewing and staying on top of their data sets. “
Meanwhile, according to the survey, nearly one third (30.5%) find it Difability to identify what to keep and what to dispose of Because of the data's potential use for ai projects in the future. Many also reported the Sheer Volume of Data they hold is a barrier to cleaning up data stores, with 30% saying iteing it's more economical to keep data that to try and clean it.
Most Business Leaders (85%) See Data Management as a Key Tool in Efforts to Reduce Carbon FootPrint, While Just Over 77% of 77% of Organizations Have Adapted Data Management Practices to Data Requirement Ai.
The ability to identify data for deletion seems to be an issue. This is a core area of data management in which Organizations can identify data they no longer need to keep at all, or which count be Archived to Less Cloud or Elsewhere.
Across the survey, just under 27% said they lacked the resources to identify whether data is useful or not, while the same number cited a lacade of budget or resources to management.
That contrasts sharply with responses from smes, where 24% do't see data management as a significant pillar of organisational efforts to reduce data footprint. Smes also placed sustainability Concerns Third, with 24% – The Larget Percentage – of Them Seeing Reduction of it spend as the key reason to reduce single use data.
Meanwhile, while 76% of Uk Businesses have started to migrate some data to the cloud in an effort to meet sustainability targets.
The survey also found “Micro-Businesses” are Least Likely-59% of that thatse questions-to see cloud migration as a tool to meet sustainability requirements. That count be decision they operate larger in the cloud already or that they consider their effect on the environment to be minimal anyway.