According to Research and Markets, data analytics is going to be a major driver in the market over the next few years, and a few vendors are already dominant in the area.

The report by Research and Markets, titled Global Cloud Analytics Market 2015-2019, estimates the annual growth rate in the rapidly expanding area of cloud analytics could be as high as 46%, and is set to grow by 26.29% annually over the next five years.

According to the report HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are some of the most dominant vendors in the area. Other prominent vendors include Actuate, Infor, VMware and Adaptive insights.

Research and Markets says cloud analytics has emerged from the integration of cloud computing and data analytics solution and now also acts as a service model, where data analysis takes place and is provided through public or private cloud.

Cloud analytics vendors offer services under subscription based or pay-per-use model, Research and Markets adds.

The company says, “Cloud analytics deals with the management of unorganised data, which helps organisations access important data and make timely decisions regarding their business.

It provides business analytics solutions to customers in a low cost and effective way, says the company.

Organisations adopt data analytics to better understand consumption patterns, customer acquisition, and other factors relating to an increase in revenue, boosted customer loyalty and lowering costs.

However the uptake of data analytics isn't without its challenges, according to the report. Research and Markets says one of the major challenges in the market is data security concerns.

“Cloud analytics uses data from various databases and integrates them to predict patterns in an organisation. Thus, there are chances of critical data leakage that can aversely affect an organisation,” says the company.