Cloud Set to Bolster Analytics and Business Intelligence
Cloud Business Intelligence (BI) adoption increased from 29% in 2013 to 43% in 2016, and future prospects continue to remain bright, with a significant 78% exhibiting the intent to increase the use of cloud BI and data management within the next year.
BARC Research and the Eckerson Group have published their BI and Data Management in the Cloud: Issues and Trends report, based on a survey of 370 recipients globally. Carried out in September and October, the survey aimed at capturing trends with respect to analytics and BI adoption today. It specifically looked at how cloud is influencing the adoption, by collecting the perceptions of as BI and analytics user base.
The survey revealed some interesting insights into the interrelationships between cloud enablement and advances in BI and analytics. Here is a look at some of the key trends to expect this year:
• Public, private, or hybrid cloud? The most preferred deployment platform for cloud BI and analytics was found to be the public cloud. Only larger organizations prefer using the private cloud for this purpose. Statistically, 46% of the survey takers selected public cloud as the preferred infrastructure in 2016, when it came to BI, analytics, and data management. Only 30% preferred hybrid models, whereas a mere 24% went for the private cloud. This points at a future demand for enhanced Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) processes. An analysis by company size indicates that larger organizations are more prone to using private clouds (33% positive response), whereas smaller organizations were least likely (16% responses). • Popular use cases for cloud BI: The following use cases emerged as the top three for 2016—dashboard-based reporting (76%), ad-hoc analysis and exploration (57%), and dashboard authoring (55%). However, the ongoing year may see a renewed focus on advanced and predictive analytics (53%), operational planning and forecasting (44%), and strategic planning and simulation (44%).
