Some 80 per cent of IT professionals in Europe believe their companies are hosting unused applications and data, costing them time and money.
In some cases, the research commissioned by Informatica discovered the cost of keeping such applications in house was estimated to cost the business over 2 million (1.75 million) per year.
Three-quarters of respondents said their companies were storing applications that had not been used in three years.
Furthermore, almost 90 per cent of the 600 professionals polled by Dynamic Markets said systems would run more efficiently if the unused applications were deleted.
"Companies must control their data, not the other way around," said Mark Seager, vice president of technology for Informatica in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
"Through chaotic and inconsistent approaches to how data is managed across the enterprise, companies increasingly have to mind the data gap'. This has an obvious impact on businesses' ability to utilise what is arguably their most valued asset."
Some firms appeared unwilling to let applications go, with almost half of respondents saying their firm would not remove the apps or their databases in case they were needed at some point in the future.
"Although almost a third of IT professionals don't feel that there is any benefit to removing unused databases from the system, this is not the case," Seager added.
"By cluttering up the network they're acting as a road block and leading to wasteful spending on something that is never going to deliver any tangible business value."
