The Cloud BI Market Is Heating Up: Ovum

The cloud BI market is heating up, finds Fredrik Tunvall, Analyst, Software – Information Management, IT, Ovum. “Tableau, SAP, Roambi, and Microsoft are just a few examples of BI vendors that have improved and expanded their cloud capabilities recently. Add to that a growing number of startups, such as GoodData, BIME and Birst, whose primary delivery model is cloud. It is clear that the cloud is becoming a more cost-effective delivery model for BI vendors to offer their software. Many BI vendors are increasingly betting on the “land and expand” model as the way to push their products: a single user or department will adopt the product, champion it, and spread it via word of mouth within the organisation,” said Tunvall.

The benefit for enterprises is the ability to start with as little as one user and grow to thousands, allowing organisations to start smaller projects quickly and scale later as organisational needs change, which can be particular useful for SMEs or departments that can’t afford IT involvement, both in terms of time and money. Business IT users across the organisation can go online, sign up, and start analysing their data within minutes rather than weeks.

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He adds, “However the cloud model still has several question marks. The cloud does make sense as a SaaS for BI reporting and dashboarding applications that rely on a limited set of data and are fitted for specific roles or use cases, e.g. to monitor sales performance or track success of online marketing campaigns. But organisations that think the cloud provides quick and easy setup for any type of BI application might have to rethink. The reality is that most BI applications used today need customisation and rely on data from multiple operational sources, which is never easy or quick to set up, be it in the cloud or on-premise.”