SAAS IN BI

WHAT IS SAAS?

A WAY OF DELIVERING SOLUTIONS OVER THE INTERNETAS A SERVICE.

INSTEAD OF INSTALLING AND MAINTAINING SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN ORGANIZATION,
YOU SIMPLY ACCESS THE SOLUTION ONLINE.
PROVIDER MANAGES APPLICATION ACCESS, INCLUDING
SECURITY, AVAILABILITY, AND PERFORMANCE.
ALL SOLUTION UPDATES HAPPEN AUTOMATICALLY.
SOMETIMES CALLED ON-DEMAND OR
WEB-BASED SOFTWARE.

CLOUD COMPUTING

CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE USE OF COMPUTING RESOURCES (HARDWARE AND

SOFTWARE) THAT ARE DELIVERED AS A SERVICE OVER A NETWORK (TYPICALLY THE
INTERNET). CLOUD COMPUTING ENTRUSTS REMOTE SERVICES WITH A USER'S DATA,
SOFTWARE AND COMPUTATION.

THE AS A SERVICE STACK

THE MORE STANDARD THE BUSINESS APPLICATION
THE HIGHER UP THE STACK IT IS POSSIBLE TO GO

MOST ORGANIZATIONS CAN DO E-MAIL, ERP,

CRM AS SAAS.
THERE IS ALSO NAAS NETWORK AS A SERVICE
THAT PROVIDES THE CONNECTIVITY TO THE CLOUD
& BETWEEN CLOUDS.

CLOUD MODELS
PUBLIC
-BY A SERVICE

PROVIDER

-OFFERED ON A PAY PER USE

PRIVATE
-BUILT BY AN ORGANIZATION FOR ITS OWN USE
-USED BY LARGE CORPORATES AND GOVERNMENTS

COMMUNITY
-BY A GROUP OF ORGANIZATIONS WHO USE COMMON RESOURCES OR SHARE COMMON
CONCERNS

HYBRID
-COMBINATION OF PUBLIC, PRIVATE & COMMUNITY

PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE CLOUD

Public cloud

Private cloud

initial (very) low cost

predictable long-term cost
often considered quite high

costly to setup
long-term cost is unpredictable

Scale-up and scale-out are easier on

public cloud

Limited freedom in Scaling up and

Scaling out

Security & privacy of data on public

cloud will always be a concern
concerns over data location

Can be customized according to the

customer requirement

ELASTIC SERVICES

ALLOW ORGANIZATIONS TO EXPAND OR CONTRACT THE SIZE OF THEIR

INDIVIDUAL SERVERS
THIS IS NOT USUALLY TRANSPARENT AS IT OFTEN REQUIRES A REBOOT
ELASTIC DISK SPACE IS USUALLY SLOWER THAN DEDICATED DISKS
CHOICE OF DATABASE TECHNOLOGY WILL AFFECT THE CHOICE OF THE
CLOUD BASED RESOURCE USED

THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF CLOUD

THE PROVISIONING OF TECHNOLOGY IS FASTER

THE COST BASE SHOULD BE MORE PREDICTABLE FOR COMPUTE

RESOURCES
ELASTICITY OF CLOUD TO HANDLE THE SPILL-OVER WHEN NECESSARY
THE CLOUD IS AN EXCELLENT WAY TO TRIAL NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND TO
RUN RAPID DEVELOPMENT IN A SKUNKS WORKS APPROACH

NEGATIVE IMPACT OF CLOUD

COST OF LARGE AMOUNT OF DATA TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM AN IN-HOUSE
SYSTEM TO CLOUD

NEED TO DEFINE THE REQUIREMENT UP FRONT.

MORE APT FOR SMALLER COMPANY THAN THE LARGER ONE
BI OPERATIONS HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT DEPARTMENT THIS DOESNT CHANGE
BY CLOUD AND BECOME MORE COMPLEX

THE BI SYSTEMS MODEL

Most BI/DWH solutions do and will resemble this form

There will be a corporate strategy for operational systems
Legacy systems will be in-house
New systems may be in-house or in the cloud
Even if an organization is committed to a fully cloud based
future there will be a transitional state which is mixed mode.

DEPLOYMENT MODEL 1

Existing Data Warehouse is retained in-house

Data Marts & Reporting Tools migrated to the cloud
ETL Server has to deliver ETL
Reporting via web interface
Desktop tools are used via Remote Desktop
Favored as a first step into the cloud
Experiments in public cloud and for extranet usage

DEPLOYMENT MODEL 2

Deployment with two ETL servers

First ETL Server loads the data warehouse
Second ETL Server has to deliver ETL to ensure that
the performance is sufficient and uses a pull model

DEPLOYMENT MODEL 3

Deployment with two ETL Servers

First ETL Server loads the staging area (just EL)
Second ETL Server has to deliver ELT to ensure
that the performance is sufficient and uses a pull
model

DEPLOYMENT MODEL 4

Deployment with a single cloud based ETL Server

Normal BI operations but all of the BI is in the cloud
More often used with Private cloud due to the security
concerns

DEPLOYMENT MODEL 5

Fully cloud based environment

No issues around data movement volumes
Security concerns will have been addressed because
all corporate data is in the cloud already

LEGACY DEPLOYMENT MODEL

Fully cloud based environment for operational systems

Issues with migrating legacy BI technologies to the
cloud

BI TOOLS IN THE CLOUD

D3.JS, NVD3, FUSION CHARTS
LOGI ANALYTICS, BIME
QLIK, TABLEAU SOFTWARE
BIRST, GOODDATA, DATAPINE - SAAS BI PLATFORM
IBM DATASTAGE, COGNOS
MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 2012

DATAPINE- SAAS BI TOOL

IT IS AN EASY-TO-USE ANALYTICS TOOL DESIGNED TO ANALYZE YOUR DATA IN ONE PLACE.
INTEGRATES THE DATA FROM VARIOUS CONNECTED DATA SOURCES AND REFLECTS THE
DATABASE IN A STRUCTURED AND VISUALIZED MANNER TO MAKE IT EASIER TO EXECUTE OWN
SQL QUERIES
IT DOESNT REQUIRE THE USER TO BE A TECHNICIAN TO GET THE MOST OUT OF A COMPANYS
DATABASES AND ENABLES EVERYONE TO EXECUTE DATA ANALYTICS AT ANY TIME REQUIRED
DRAG AND DROP INTERFACE AND INTUITIVE DESIGN ALLOWS USER TO GET DOWN INTO THE
DATA TO USE COMPREHENSIVE VISUALIZATION FEATURES AND TO PRODUCE ANALYSIS AND
RESULTS THAT IMPROVES BUSINESS PERFORMANCES AND DISCOVER CURRENT TRENDS
BI SOFTWARE KEEPS US UP-TO-DATE ON WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE BUSINESS

IMPACT ON BUSINESS

BI USE IS STILL LIMITED BECAUSE IT IS DIFFICULT TO IMPLEMENT AND USE - THUS

COMES SAAS BI
TIMESCALE - FAST IMPLEMENTATION.
AFFORDABLE - LOW OPERATIONAL COST.
MORE CASH FLOW FRIENDLY.
SIGNIFICANT ROI.
MORE USER FRIENDLY.

CONCLUSION

BUSINESS RESPONSIVENESS TO CONTINUOUS CHANGE WILL BE ABLE TO COMPETE IN A

DYNAMIC GLOBAL ECONOMY
CLOUD COMPUTING IS ADJUSTABLE
CLOUDS ARE DESIGNED TO BE DYNAMICALLY SCALABLE WHEN MORE RESOURCES ARE
REQUIRED
DATA MINING TOOLS IN THE BI SAAS SOLUTIONS COULD PROVIDE THE BUSINESS WITH
RELEVANT TOOLS TO MAKE STRATEGIC BUSINESS DECISIONS
FEW CHALLENGES ARE MOVING LARGE DATA SETS TO THE CLOUD GETS COSTLY AND
SECURITY IS A MAJOR ISSUE
BI SAAS SOLUTION PROVIDES A MORE FLEXIBLE MODEL THAT ALIGNS BETTER WITH
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.

REFERENCES

THOMPSON (2010), BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE CLOUD,

JOURNAL OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, VOL 12, NO 1
HTTP://WWW.COMPUTERWORLD.COM/ARTICLE/2550506/BUSINES
S-INTELLIGENCE/IS-SAAS-A-GOOD-FIT-FOR-BI-.HTML
HTTP://SEARCHBUSINESSANALYTICS.TECHTARGET.COM/DEFI
NITION/SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE-BI-SAAS-BI