Research firm IDC released a paper today entitled  which concludes that The worldwide business analytics market rose by 14.1 percent last year, according to a new report from IDC. In the report, ‘Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2012-2016 Forecast and 2011 Vendor Shares,’ IDC says it expects a compound annual growth rate of 9.8 percent to persist through 2016, the year in which the industry will reach $50.7 billion.

IDC breaks the worldwide business analytics software market to three different segments: warehousing software, an area that has seen a 15.2 percent surge in sales during 2011; apps, which grew by 13.3 percent; and BI tools. The latter category is not too far behind the other two, with a 13.2 percent rise recorded in 2011.

“Driven by the attention-grabbing headlines for Big Data and more than three decades of evolutionary and revolutionary developments in technology and best practices, the business analytics software market has crossed the chasm into the mainstream mass market,” says Dan Vesset, program vice president for IDC’s Business Analytics Solutions. “The demand for business analytics solutions is exposing the previously minor issue of the shortage of highly skilled IT and analytics staff.”

As more and more companies are starting to look into analytics the audience diversifies, opening a door for two new trends: services catering to enterprises that are new to this technology, and industry-specific applications that differentiate themselves by offering much more adaptability than off-the-shelf alternatives.

Wikibon released a report of its own about big data growth in February, which also expects that market to pass the $50 billion mark by 2016-2017. At the same time it also offers more thorough insight from the vendor perspective, breaking down the numbers by revenue divides.