Companies everywhere are realizing the savings on operational costs and hardware that cloud computing brings to the table. And yes, there are many who aren’t sold on the security the cloud offers versus the comforts of keeping data on-premise.

Regardless of which side of the fence you fall on, you can’t ignore the facts; both IDC and Gartner are predicting huge numbers for the future of the cloud industry. A recent report by market intelligence firm IDC claims that revenue drawn from cloud computing is expected to reach $55 billion by 2014 (up from its current $16 billion), making it one of the fastest growing trends in IT. IDC also claims that on-premise IT is only moving at a 5 percent annual growth rate—in stark contrast to cloud’s 27 percent rate.

Gartner Research released its own report in late June, a day prior to the IDC report. According to the market research firm, cloud computing should reach $140 billion in global revenue by 2014.

While there is a bit of a disconnect between the two projections, one thing is for sure: the future looks bright for the cloud computing industry

The problem facing most of us as technology managers is whether Cloud or on-premise makes the most sense for our businesses. Because there are strategic benefits to both, the decision can be a struggle. But what CIOs should know is that you truly don’t need to make a clear-cut decision for your business. Implementing platforms both in the Cloud and on-premise is a great way to play to multiple aspects of your business while enjoying the benefits that each strategy has to offer.

Read full article from the CIO Update: How Cloud and On-Premise Platforms Work Together

You can build a hybrid solution ad-hoc, leverage one of the few early adopters of hybrid BI, or call on your ISV to adopt a more dynamic strategy—but, however it’s done, it’ll be crucial that your business leverages a combination cloud and on-premise business intelligence in the coming years.

How does it work?

Most organizations are fine with running applications on the cloud. For security and other reasons, these same companies want to maintain full control and ownership of their data on-premise. With a hybrid solution, information stays on-premise while the application layer that collects the data resides in the cloud. This kind of functionality allows for full, secure control of data, coupled with the cost-saving benefits of cloud computing.

The data access layer is the one key difference between pure and hybrid solutions. The component that directly connects to the data stays on-premise, and the only data transferred to the cloud is the result of the query.

Now, you have a hybrid solution. No more software maintenance. No more uninstalls, upgrades or patches. All the maintenance is performed directly by the vendor, and your IT staff is free to perform more pressing tasks. Meanwhile, all of your data is warehoused on-premise where it’s safe and directly accessible.

ISVs are lax to adopt the strategy because it can be expensive to add cloud functionality to an on-premise product and vice versa. In the long run, it’ll be beneficial for ISVs to adopt a hybrid BI strategy to beef up their value propositions and sell more services. Well, it’s the new year. Let’s hope some of those vendors made the right resolutions!

As is the case with a lot of market shifts, cost plays a crucial role here. The original adopters of open source BI were SMBs without the resources to spend on complex business intelligence solutions. But with the evolution of SaaS, the parameters of “inexpensive” BI solutions are shifting away from on-premise open source towards solutions that don’t require costly hardware.

Well, advocates for political correctness will be happy to hear that cloud is chasing open source out the window, especially in the BI space.

SaaS business intelligence solutions are starting a run to dominate the BI market. Without the need for hardware, extensive time-to-market, or extra resources for setup, the cost to set up a BI solution plummets – even from the relative cost-effectiveness of open source.

Cloud computing provides other significant benefits. For one, SaaS leverages an extremely scalable BI platform. Especially for SMBs with room to grow, this is an admirable characteristic. On another hand, cloud computing allows metaphorical “out-of-the-box” functionality – another important factor for small businesses that don’t have the time or resources to devote towards a comprehensive on-premise setup.

So will cloud computing eventually lead to the extinction of open source? Not exactly. Cloud computing providers use open source to power their datacenters. But direct-to-consumer open source BI solutions have already begun to lose steam. Look for cloud computing as the future of business intelligence.

Let’s answer that question with another question: why choose one when you can have the best of both worlds?

Every business is different: different sizes, different shapes, different business needs. The real choice shouldn’t definitively be between on-premise and cloud BI; it should be between which components of your suite run on-premise and which components run inside the cloud.

Many of today’s SaaS vendors don’t offer you the choice. Because on-demand BI is still relatively new, it has been perceived as the future of BI. Unfortunately, many SaaS vendors are leveraging the popular belief that you must choose between one or the other to push cloud services on unsuspecting businesses. The truth is you can keep the on-premise components that work best for your business while adding on-demand components that complement your BI platform.

For instance, a company might want only front-end tools to exist in the cloud, while entire data warehouses remain on-premise. The dirty little secret SaaS vendors don’t tell you: you can have your cake and eat it, too.

A solution like our own NovaView offers a customizable hybrid of services that combines on-premise and traditional cloud platforms for allowing each business to function in its unique way. Using a hybrid platform helps organizations bypass moving large data warehouses to the cloud while offering limitless collaboration potential – something businesses don’t get with a pure on-premise solution.

Remember: while SaaS offers your organization capabilities beyond your on-premise solution, you don’t have to choose between one or the other. Explore the market; the flexibility of a hybrid solution could make BI data accessible to even more information workers.

In some ways Google Spreadsheets goes beyond Microsoft Excel and can actually extend the enterprise user’s capabilities. Google Spreadsheets can help users in the enterprise with collaboration, visualization and analytics.

1. Collaboration
Google Spreadsheets allows multiple users to work together in real time on a single spreadsheet report. Even if you’re not ready to replace Excel, you will benefit from uploading your existing spreadsheet to Google Spreadsheets, then inviting people to a collaborative session. When finished, you can simply save your spreadsheet back to Excel or keep it live on Google Docs.

2. Visualization
Google has built some interesting data visualization tools into its free Spreadsheets application. These tools, known as gadgets, can be added to a Google spreadsheet as needed. For example you can inset an animated “motion chart” into your spreadsheet to show how data has changed over time.

3. Data analytics
The analytical features in Google Spreadsheets are extremely powerful, enabling numbers to tell stories that might otherwise have never been found. By being able to “slice and dice” data, you can see your numbers in a new light and gain important insights.

Pivot tables are a great case in point for the power of analytics. By inserting a pivot table into your spreadsheet, you can instantly and dynamically compare classes or information such as expenses over time, sales by geography and so forth. Or you can quickly identify your top 10 (or bottom 10) products, vendors or salespeople.

Read full article and a step-by-step guide to using analytics in a Google spreadsheet: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/How-to-Use-Google-Spreadsheets-for-NoCost-Data-Analytics/

TORONTO, ON – (January 13th, 2009) – Panorama Software, a global leader in Proactive Business Intelligence solutions, today released a new version of Panorama Analytics for Google Apps, its free analytics solution for Google Apps. By enabling native Excel and other files to load directly into the application, Panorama’s new version gives Excel spreadsheet users an even easier-to-use and more collaborative alternative to the analytics tools in Excel.

Panorama Analytics for Google Apps, powered by Panorama’s comprehensive set of powerful and intuitive BI technologies, is ideal for business and consumer data analysis, reporting, visualization and dashboarding.  As part of the free Google Docs or the enterprise edition  Google Apps, anyone can use Panorama Analytics for Google Apps to process spreadsheets from any source. Users can perform analysis on their excel data to identify interesting and powerful insights off of the data in new “Google like” ways.

The new version of Panorama’s analytics solution adds a number of new features and capabilities to an already impressive list.  Updates include:

• Native Excel and .CSV Support.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps users can now upload Excel files as well as CSV (Comma Separated Values, the file format often used in line-of-business applications) files directly into Panorama Analytics, without having to upload into Google Spreadsheets first.
• User-Defined Formulas.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps now allows users to create formulas—or select from a list of pre-defined formulas—and insert them for faster processing of the data.
• Gadget Embedding.  Similar to the way YouTube videos can be embedded in websites and blogs, this unique and innovative capability lets users upload data and embed their interactive charts and tables into Web pages, blogs and other forms of online communication. The embedded material can be made totally interactive, enabling readers to do their own analysis on-the-fly giving a new experience for sharing data on the web.
• Interactive Help.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps introduces interactive tips and explanations that explain the functions of the solution—a convenient way to maximize the value of Google Docs and the free BI application.

 

“Although Microsoft Excel offers analytics, only a fraction of all Excel users take advantage of them due to their complexity, the lack of collaboration and the lack of web technology support.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps not only makes spreadsheet analytics easy for the average person, but also makes them available via any Web browser in a format that supports collaboration,” said Oudi Antebi, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for Panorama Software.  “The new capabilities in our updated version of Panorama Analytics for Google Apps adds to the convenience, flexibility and usability of this extremely popular product.”

Advertising Model

Also debuting in the new version of Panorama Analytics for Google Apps are context-sensitive ads that will help sustain and improve the free service in the future.  “The features in Panorama Analytics for Google Apps compare favorably to commercial applications costing between $500 and $1,000 per user.  By accepting advertising and insisting it be made available in a desirable, non-intrusive fashion, a new business model is in place that will actually help us find and fund exciting features that will be of value to our users in the future,” said Antebi.

To learn more about the free Panorama Analytics for Google Apps gadget, go to www.panorama.com/google/. To try out the new Google Apps gadget, go to: http://pivot.panorama.com/Panorama/FoodMart.htm. Additional information about Panorama’s full range of BI solutions can be found at www.panorama.com.

Panorama Analytics can be embedded in your web site or blog just like YouTube videos. First, create a Panorama Analytics gadget, connect and upload your data, and prepare the initial report or chart. Save it and use the “Embed” option under “Save” menu to get the embedding code.

Uploading Data From Your Excel or CSV File

1. Login to iGoogle

2. Click “Add Stuff” or “Insert Gadget” and search for Panorama or look in the “Tables” category. There are two Panorama gadgets available, use the “Panorama Analytics” one. Or you can click on this link and add the gadget to your iGoogle page.

3. Login inside the gadget with the same Google account you are using. That’s how we’ll authenticate and recognize you.

4. Choose the data source and upload some data. For example, it can be some Excel file with interesting data to analyze.

Uploading Data From Your Google Spreadsheet

1. Login to Google Spreadsheets and open / create a spreadsheet with the data you want to analyze.

2. Once your data is ready, click insert and chose Gadgets.

3. Select the “Tables” menu on the left.

4. Click “Add to spreadsheet” below the “Analytics for Google Spreadsheet” gadget and follow the wizard to create your first interactive report

Customizing and saving your report

5. Once there in the Panorama Analytics, interact and play with the data.

Use the help system to learn the tool. Experiment.
Use our tutorial to learn how to use the product: http://www.panorama.com/google/pivot-table-tutorial/
Watch the video to learn more about the product: http://www.panorama.com/webcasts/saas-demo/

6. Once you have an interesting chart or view on your data, Save the view (from the main toolbar).

Generating the embedding code

7. From the same “Save” menu, use the embedding option to generate the embedding code. No need to understand HTML. Just set the size for the analytics component, give it a title and copy the HTML code to the right place in your website or blog post.

Security

Note the security mode. It’s your decision whether any anonymous visitor will be able to see the data or whether they are required to login with their Google account first.

“In addition to the interview I did yesterday with socialtext, which explores some of the disruption coming to enterprises, there’s another trend I’m tracking: the coming fight between the collaborative web and Microsoft.Now some pundits in the industry think that the fight will be head on. Not me. I think it’ll be more parasitic. Like how mold takes over a strawberry. Slow, but in the end the strawberry dies.Is that what we’re seeing now? Well, here’s something that is a small piece of the bigger trend. You could call it a few cells of mold on the strawberry, if you’d like.What is it? Panorama Software for Google Apps. I shot two videos with Oudi Antebi, VP of marketing and strategy of Panorama Software. Never heard of them? Neither had I, but what they are doing is very disruptive to bigger companies:

Part I. Where we discover what is happening in the Business Intelligence space and learn what Panorama Software is doing. (This video is embedded above).
Part II. Demo of how the Panorama gadget is used to display real-time data.”

Read full blog post: http://scobleizer.com/2008/12/31/the-story-of-2009-enterprise-disruption/

 

 

Check it out! http://www.panorama.com/salesforce/