This IDC Insight discusses the key challenges faced by organizations in the "Big Data era" and some of the action taken in this context. Undoubtedly, the trend of extreme data proliferation and the availability of technologies that allow organizations to run more (cost-) efficient analysis on very large and complex data sets in real time presents significant benefits to organizations, but this phenomenon is also forcing organizations to rethink their technology architectures and data management strategies in order to attain real business value. This study includes the perspectives of multiple end users from the financial services industry and provides guidance to end users.