Introducing IDC's Taxonomy for Data as a Service

IDC has a long and respected history as a market authority on the hardware and software markets. Over the past several years, we have noted a rising interest in the content that fills that hardware and software – data. The sharing and selling of second- and third-party data is not new, but we do note a shifting paradigm with a growing market for machine-readable data that can be used in many types of enterprise applications from CRM and ERP applications to marketing automation, targeting, predictive analytics, and increasingly, cognitive/AI applications. This data is being used to build and examine models of consumer and organizational behavior that can be used to predict possible future actions. It is being used to enhance software offerings and smart devices, and provide predictive and maintenance services.

It is time to provide ongoing coverage of this market, and IDC has developed a taxonomy to organize further market assessments including market sizing and trends. IDC chooses to organize the DaaS taxonomy based upon the primary subject of the data being provided. Our primary market segments are not divided by the method with which the data is initially captured or the way in which it is provided as a service. This data can be provided as a one-time sale, batch or real-time updates. It may be provided by the 'owner' of the data or by a 3rd party aggregator or platform.

Data as a service (DaaS) is data delivery and access services that result in the trade in machine-readable data. These data can include raw data or value-added information derived from the raw data and/or from aggregated third-party data. The requirement for machine readability expressly excludes long-form text, pictures or photos, video, and sheet music or musical performances. The DaaS market is where an enterprise can monetize its data assets to external parties (or participate as a member of a data-sharing consortium).

IDC organizes the DaaS taxonomy based upon the primary domain or subject of the data being provided, and further segments the market into multiple categories of DaaS within each domain as illustrated in the figure for this article.

DaaS providers are companies that are generating, aggregating, curating, analyzing, and adding value to information for transmission and licensing or sale to others. These providers include dedicated DaaS vendors as well as any entity across any industry that sells DaaS to external parties.

DaaS offerings are highly varied, and in the DaaS taxonomy, the domains are defined by what the data itself is about — its primary subject. For example, data in the physical goods and infrastructure domain is about the good itself, that is, what kinds of breads there are, how much bread is being purchased, price of bread sold, and who is buying bread. The people domain is about people who buy bread — and could include information about other things they buy when they buy bread.

In addition to domains, IDC defines categories of DaaS that span multiple domains. When referring back to the figure, this would be providing DaaS that spanned across one or more rows horizontally rather than focusing on a particular domain (column). For example, a DaaS provider may include descriptive category data across both the people and organization domains.

Of course, there are alternative ways to look at the DaaS market. For sales purposes, some vendors in this space choose to market their offerings by the use cases rather than focusing on a specific domain, category, or market segment. This is not IDC's taxonomy structure because we believe that the rapid development of this market will lead to ongoing change with these use cases and applications for DaaS.

We are excited to share our research on this growing and rapidly changing market. In addition to the full taxonomy (https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US43644718 , accessible to IDC subscribers), we are adding more work on adoption trends, the role of marketplaces, and market sizing.