Business intelligence (abbreviated as BI) consists of computer-based techniques allowing businesses’ decision-makers to make better decisions regarding the business operations. The fast evolution of cloud computing technologies allows businesses to incorporate the cloud in business intelligence.
Gartner, one of the most prominent research firms, has recently revealed some interesting facts about cloud computing for business intelligence and analytic.
The Gartner survey founds the fact that almost a third of BI platform users surveyed (27 percent, to be exact) are using or planning to use the cloud / SaaS to expand their business intelligence capabilities in the next 12 months.
Those stats are promising, considering the fact that only 17 percent of organizations have already replaced or plan to replace parts of their core BI functions with cloud solutions.
Regarding the promising but slow adoption of the cloud for business intelligence, James Richardson, Gartner Research Director explains:
SaaS- and cloud-based BI is perceived as offering a quicker, potentially lower-cost and easier-to-deploy alternative, though this has yet to be proven. It’s evident that, despite growing interest, the market is confused about what cloud/SaaS BI and analytics are and what they can deliver.
Nevertheless, the trend is there; BI is moving toward the cloud.
Why businesses adopt the cloud for BI?
According to Gartner, there are 3 major drivers for cloud computing adoption for BI:
1. Time to value
The cloud allows BI to be deployed faster and providing insight and value in cost-effective manners. Those are great especially when your IT department doesn’t have much room to explore, due to limited budget or high workload.
2. Cost considerations
If your business is looking for long-term operational expenses benefits, then you should consider the cloud. Cloud solutions might not be cheaper than non-cloud, on-premise solutions when it comes to capital expenditures. With those being said, cloud software’s benefits lies within the ability for your business to reduce costs in other aspects, such as cash flow, reduced IT support expenses, etc.
3. Lack of expertise
If your business lack IT expertise to build and manage business intelligence and analytic systems, then a third-party cloud analytic apps – along with cloud-savvy and analytic-savvy IT pros running them – can help you tackle your skill shortage issues.
So – are you going cloud with your business intelligence and analytic? If so, what’s your main consideration to adopt the cloud?
