Summary
This document is a market study that outlines the strategic importance and market trajectory of data engineering in 2026. It describes how organizations are modernizing their analytical data infrastructure to support complex business intelligence (BI) and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, emphasizing the foundational role of data engineering in building and managing data pipelines. The study notes that the perceived importance of data engineering has increased significantly since 2020, with many organizations classifying it as critical. It details market adoption trends, highlighting a preference for best-of-breed sourcing while also noting the importance of integration with strategic analytic data infrastructure platforms. The document further discusses the functional requirements for data engineering, including a priority on ease of development and diverse integration capabilities. Additionally, it addresses the expansion of data engineering beyond traditional BI applications to include operational use cases such as master data delivery and system migrations.
