Big data analytics has become indispensable to the modern enterprise. Unlike anything that has come before, it enables businesses to mine vast quantities of data to discover patterns, trends and connections that give highly valuable insights. These insights can have an immediate and transformative impact, providing a comprehensive view of the company and helping it gain advantages over its competitors. Undertaking big data analytics, however, requires a company to have the necessary computing resources in place and here we’ll explain why the best solution is cloud analytics.
An overview of cloud analytics
Most enterprises are already aware that the cloud, with its scalability and pay-per-use costing model, offers the most cost-effective way to store and process vast quantities of data. There are, however, other reasons for using it. Cloud analytics is a solution that allows enterprises to undertake analysis or intelligence procedures through the use of integrated cloud models. These can include SaaS business intelligence, hosted data warehouses, cloud-powered communications platforms, social media analytics and so forth. Employing a range of analytical tools and techniques, it helps businesses extract valuable information from massive datasets and then presents it in an easily digestible format using a user-friendly, web-accessible, interface.
A unified vision of the company
An issue for many large companies is that data is dispersed; often located in departmental silos that not everyone has access to. A consequence of this is that there is no unified view of the enterprise as a whole. Instead, there are disparate perceptions, held by different people, each informed by their own datasets. For want of a better analogy, it’s a bit like asking the company to bake a cake when no single member of the team has the complete recipe.
What makes cloud analytics so useful is that it enables the company to consolidate all its data in a single place. The scalable capacity that cloud provides allows all data sources to feed into this repository, including data from applications, devices, social networks, IoT devices, communications platforms and data subscriptions. What’s more, a cloud-based data management platform ensures this data can be easily blended so that it can be matched, merged and cleansed. As a result, the enterprise is provided with an accurate, unified vision of the company that can be shared across the entire organisation so that everyone has the full picture.
Improved data accessibility
Unifying data using a cloud-based data management platform has other benefits too. These platforms are much easier to deploy and use than in-house applications and learning to use them can often be self-taught which can reduce the need for training. Furthermore, teams don’t need to log into a separate system to undertake analytics or create one-off reports. This speeds up the adoption of the technology, making analytics more accessible throughout the organisation.
Speedy adoption is also encouraged because employees soon see the advantages of using cloud-based analytics apps that present the findings of their analysis in easily digestible formats and which can be accessed remotely over the internet.
Enhanced collaboration
Building systems which enable team members to collaborate effectively can be challenging, especially when a combination of in-house and external systems makes it difficult to develop analytical models and share the findings. This can limit the pace of development, result in work being unnecessarily duplicated and prevent all members making a full contribution to the project.
Cloud-based data analytics helps overcome these issues, letting team members work collaboratively to curate data, create analytics designs and evaluate outcomes. Regardless of where in the world they are located, each member will be able to access insights in real-time and act upon them swiftly. Where operational teams need those insights to make critical, data-driven decisions, this offers significant advantages for the company.
Security and compliance
Security is essential for enterprises, whether that’s to protect the personal data of customers or safeguard business intelligence. For many organisations, this can be a deciding factor over whether to make use of cloud-based analytics, with the web-accessibility of their systems being their primary concern.
Many of those that choose not to use cloud-based analytics are left with in-house systems. These, however, typically make use of older technologies and legacy apps that, in reality, present more vulnerabilities than those used in the modern datacentre. Indeed, cloud systems also have a less complex architecture which makes them easier to monitor and defend.
Perhaps more crucial is that cloud service providers are under obligation to comply with a wide range of regulations and international standards to ensure their systems offer robust security for their customers. As a result, they deploy the most advanced security mechanisms and have better systemic security services than those found in most in-house systems. They also provide enterprises with one of the quickest, most effective and affordable disaster recovery solutions.
Conclusion
Cloud data analytics provides several key benefits for enterprises wanting to make the most effective use of their data. It helps them consolidate data into a single repository for quicker and easier access, it provides the tools needed to undertake different forms of analysis and gain insights, it enables companies to have a unified view of the business, it enhances collaboration and it can improve security. What’s more, it’s instantly scalable, charged for on a pay-per-use basis and comes with the benefits of managed services and 24/7 technical support.
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