A Quick Guide to Cloud BI and Its Benefits
As businesses are investing in analytics tools to manage rising data volumes, the importance of cloud business intelligence has become tenfold. Cloud BI helps organizations utilize cloud-based infrastructure to get easy data access and process it for smarter decision-making. In this blog, we will learn the basics of cloud BI and how it helps businesses make a smart move and stand out from the competition.
- What is cloud business intelligence
- Key features of cloud business intelligence
- Benefits of cloud business intelligence
- How will cloud BI evolve in the future?
- How do different industries use cloud BI?
- Who should consider using cloud BI solutions?
The global cloud analytics market — a major subset of Cloud BI technologies — was worth over USD $33 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD $147 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of ~17.7%.
What is cloud business intelligence?
Hosted on virtual networks and cloud platforms, cloud BI applications use technologies that can help users access BI-related data such as dashboards, KPIs, and other business analytics. With cloud BI, you can leverage the perks of managing data and delivering insights anytime, anywhere.
It connects directly to cloud data sources like Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, or Databricks, and because it’s hosted in the cloud, your provider manages updates, infrastructure, and security for you. Cloud BI apps can integrate with data sources such as SnowFlake, Google, Amazon Redshift, Databricks and more.
Key features of cloud business intelligence
- Accessibility: Cloud BI offer real-time accessibility to analytics tools that encourage team collaboration. Due to the accessibility of resources, the organization is empowered with more cloud computing power. Data is stored on trusted cloud servers and allow for easy accessibility.
- Scalability: As the data volume rises in the organization, cloud based BI tools scale up to manage these datasets without interfering with the infrastructure.
- Data security: Cloud based BI applications ensure security protocols, encryption and compliance certifications. It secures data from increasing cyber threats
Benefits of cloud business intelligence
Compared to traditional BI on desktop, Cloud BI eliminates the issues with data silos and managing IT tools and applications – on-premise. Here are a few ways how cloud BI helps businesses across all sectors:
When the business data is available on the cloud, employees can be on the same page as they can share insights and collaborate with their colleagues in real-time. All files, reports and other data-centric content are available on cloud, which makes interaction across teams easy.
As there is no additional hardware to install, cloud BI applications are easy to use and do not require lengthy implementation process of setting up and configuring physical servers. Once the applications are installed, all you need is internet connection and your laptop to work on.
- Increased data visibility
Cloud BI offers real-time access to data and collects data from multiple sources, organizes it into structured data warehouses and provides tools for data visualization and analytics. Cloud gathers data from ERP and CRM systems and integrates it into single cloud-based ecosystems.
- Cost-efficiency and scalability
Cloud BI allows businesses to pay for what they use that makes expenses manageable and predictable. It eliminates the need for investments and reduces costs on IT infrastructure and other IT infrastructure. Cloud BI offers subscription-based models which the organization can scale up or down, as time demands.
Cloud based BI (Business Intelligence) delivers data analytics and insights via the internet, using cloud platforms (like AWS, Azure) instead of on-premise hardware, offering scalability, accessibility (anywhere, any device), cost-effectiveness (pay-as-you-go), and real-time data processing for faster, more informed decisions, integrating various data sources for comprehensive visualization and reporting. It works by connecting to cloud data, analyzing it with cloud tools, and presenting insights through web dashboards, managed by the provider.
How will cloud BI evolve in the future?
Cloud BI has become a default analytics platform for global businesses, thanks to the flexibility, scalability and cost-efficiency it is offering. The future of cloud BI is coupled with Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analytics and Big Data integration which can offer better ways for data analysis and management.
- Integration with AI and Machine Learning: Going forward, cloud AI tools will embed AI data capabilities, promote natural language queries and automated insights.
- Adoption of cloud BI across new industries: Because of the cost-effectiveness cloud is offering to the businesses, it will allow even small businesses to invest in advanced analytics.
Businesses can get domain-specific solutions for Cloud BI solutions. Pre-trained AI models will offer industry-specific solutions, analytics templates and forecast reports.
- Enhanced app-based experience: Cloud BI platforms can come up with tailored apps for every department in the organization for streamlining workflows and driving smarter decisions.
- Wider adoption across industries: Cloud BI’s cost-effectiveness is leveling the playing field, allowing small and mid-sized businesses to access the same advanced analytics once reserved for enterprises.
How do different industries use cloud BI?
Cloud business intelligence tools are designed to be used by all sectors but here is a list of a few industries that have adopted it at a fast pace: healthcare, entertainment, finance, insurance and more. They have realized that cloud BI tools can tremendously democratize data, ensure cost-efficiency and add more to the organization’s insights.
Use cases:
Finance: Cloud BI tools can help finance companies to identify clients’ performance, analyze risks for the loan approval process, and meet cross-selling/up-selling requirements.
Retail: Cloud based BI tools can help retail companies launch promo campaigns, design marketing campaigns which are industry specific. These tools can strategically enhance advertising roadmaps and help improve sales.
Manufacturing: BI tools can help manufacturers manage production planning, analyze plant operations, handle procurement process, sales, distribution, logistics – everything in real-time.
Healthcare: With cloud BI analytics, healthcare professionals can centralize patients’ data in real-time, enable personalized patient care, promote collaboration while meeting compliance factors.
Education: Helps professionals track students’ performance metric, manage their scores with real-time data access.
Who should consider using cloud based BI solutions?
SMEs: Small and mid-size enterprises greatly benefit from cloud BI platforms and leverage strong analytics tools without paying much for the infrastructure.
It not only allows data-driven decision-making but also helps SMEs promote collaboration among geographically dispersed teams.
Large enterprises with remote teams: Cloud BI allow real-time access to teams working across the globe, remotely. They can manage, store, view and edit data, create reports and make decisions in a smarter way.
Companies are willing to take digital transformation initiatives: Selecting the approach to Cloud BI platform itself is a great move towards digital transformation. With cloud-first BI model, businesses can sync better with digital systems.
Cloud Business Intelligence: A scalable platform for unmatched performance
From promoting team collaboration to breaking down silos with real-time data access, the benefits of Cloud based BI extend beyond data management. Power BI promotes business agility, data interpretation, offers multi-layered data security and empowers advanced analytics capabilities.
It helps in identifying patterns, drilling down data. With sophisticated charts and advanced visualization tools that can be accessed in real-time, operations become less complicated and less time-consuming. If you want to learn more about how Cloud BI solutions can help your business grow, Beyond Key is here to help. With more than 2 decades of serving for the global clientele, our BI consultants engage with organizations and help them through every step, from planning to implementation.
FAQs:
1. What is Cloud Business Intelligence?
Cloud Business Intelligence is the process of using applications hosted on cloud platforms to collect, visualize, and analyze data. Cloud BI helps organizations manage reports and data in real-time to drive diligent business decisions.
2. How does Cloud BI differ from traditional BI?
Here’s how Cloud BI differs from traditional BI:
| Area |
Cloud BI |
Traditional BI |
| Deployment |
requires software and hardware installation |
Hosted virtually on platforms: AWS, Azure, and GCP, which minimizes the cost on physical hardware |
| Scalability and flexibility |
Time-consuming process, as the company scales |
Easily scales up or down as per the data volume, without much operational disruption |
| Cost |
High investment, license cost, and ongoing maintenance cost |
Offers subscription-based models which require lower investment |
| Maintenance and updates |
Complex maintenance and updates |
Easy and timely updates managed by cloud provider |
| Speed and access |
Complex on-premises deployments lead to lower speed |
Offers real-time access to data which enhances decision-making process |
3. What are the main benefits of Cloud BI?
The main benefits of Cloud BI are cost-efficiency, enhanced accessibility, real-time insights, scalability, better collaboration, data visibility, self-service analytics, data loss prevention, and advanced security of data.
4. How do I choose the right Cloud BI solution?
To choose the right BI software, businesses should assess their business data and budget while considering factors such as security, performance, scalability and support. You can begin the journey of selecting the Cloud BI by looking at some criteria which may include data integration, scalability, compliance, performance, to name a few.
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