Establishing a future-proof data architecture—with capabilities for real-time integration, accessibility, and scalability—has become the bedrock of operational efficiency and future innovation. But persistent data challenges, including data silos, remain a thorn in the side of ambition and execution.
of IT leaders see data streaming platforms as critical or important to achieving their data-related goals
of IT leaders cite higher or significantly higher investments in DSPs in 2025
Data remains front and center in business conversations, so data-related priorities such as real-time visibility, governance, access for automation, and reusability are top of mind for IT leaders. And data streaming platforms are also seen as essential catalysts for advancing these strategic priorities.
It’s not just about aligning with business priorities, DSPs are seen as a key driver of tangible business outcomes.
By enabling data to flow more quickly, freely, and securely throughout the organization, DSPs have direct or indirect impact on product/service innovation, faster time to market, and improved customer satisfaction.
Modern organizations run on data, but businesses continue to face multiple hurdles in leveraging data effectively. A majority of organizations report five or more challenges—with inconsistency in data sources, uncertain data quality, and data silos ranking among the top barriers to success.
A closer look reveals that data streaming technology has firmly established itself among the top-tier technology priorities for IT leaders for 2025, alongside security, data management and governance, and AI/ML solutions.
Remarkably, data streaming platforms can tackle all of these challenges head-on, including helping mitigate data silos, streamline access to existing data, and address governance-related disjoints.
What makes a good DSP? The short answer is comprehensive functionality. Zooming in on some of the specifics, key priorities for IT leaders evaluating DSPs include connectors to mainstream applications, governance enforcement, AI integration capabilities, and embedded stream processing.
Having these capabilities integrated into a single platform liberates data teams from unnecessary complexity while accelerating time to value for both existing and new use cases.
Another significant aspect of DSP evolution is that respondents prefer a mix of deployment options.
of IT leaders highlight access to DSPs via public cloud services as very relevant to their deployment option.
cite preference for self-managed on-premises, deployments where the entire DSP stack is hosted in their own data center or privately hosted environment.
cite preference for BYOC data streaming. In this model you, control your data while the provider manages the software stack (as a service) in your private environment.
