If you have SAP solutions, have you considered using BI in public clouds?

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Excellent solution alternatives may be deployed for SAP Analytics Cloud on AWS.

For companies that have SAP ERP, this is a great moment to consider deploying BI in the cloud.

Public clouds offer very complete, safe, scalable, and cost-effective service portfolios, which enable analysis and value generation based on the available data. This is a real revolution that is changing the way Business Intelligence (BI) is done, as it is easier to obtain Big Data information quickly and effectively, thereby enhancing your business.

In the article Cold War lessons for digital transformation we analyzed that outside SAP’s restricted environment, a huge and versatile digital innovation ecosystem is being developed. This translates into the creation of applications that are simple, user friendly, inexpensive, and may be readily implemented, and access to free open source applications. This ecosystem is an opportunity for companies that need quality and speed at low costs, and they must consider it to avoid considerable losses.

Also, it is important to stress that all companies are facing a challenge in digital transformation. From our perspective, this challenge involves the integration of three components: the SAP solution (or its ERP) as digital core, the digital applications of many providers, and the company’s own digital developments, by using the large number of easy and economically accessible tools that public clouds are delivering. These integrations can incorporate high-end technology quickly and at relatively low costs.

We recommend considering the analytics platform in public clouds because, as was noted in the article Six reasons to consider Analytics in the Cloud:

1. It is cheaper.
2. Reduces time to market.
3. It is flexible to escalate and de-escalate based on business demands.
4. It is based on platform services managed by the cloud providers, designed to provide the highest levels of availability and operation simplicity.
5. Scalability is more granular, simple, and quick.
6. Extensive functionality is available.

Furthermore, in the article Serverless architectures for analytics and BI solutions in the cloud we discuss one of the options for the deployment of Analytics platforms in public clouds, the serverless architecture which, as the name implies, does not require servers, and where BI applications may be built at extremely low costs, with granular growth, unlimited scalability, and simplified management. All of which are features that eliminate technological restrictions which limit the projects a company may undertake.

In this case, payment for serverless analytical tools is per-use and not for the required infrastructure, which has advantages in terms of costs that are relevant for information analyses. Firstly, access loads are not continuous over time, for example, daily sales reports may be queried once a day and preloaded in the visualization tool.

Normally this type of technology adopts the massive parallel processing model originated in the world of Big Data, breaking down a query into smaller ones which are then distributed across multiple servers working in parallel, obtaining thus better response times than with traditional architectures.

Another advantage is that growth is granular, and only the required capacities are paid for. The traditional architecture problem of having to grow in large blocks, associated with hardware capacity, no longer exists. There are also no scalability limits, both for data storage and processing power.

Finally, as the platforms are managed by the cloud providers, the complexity of managing servers, applications, and capacity is avoided, for all of this is covered by the cloud’s services.

How secure is the information in the cloud?

This is an important and recurrent question. In the article Security considerations in public clouds we mentioned that the pressure to improve data security affects all industries. Solving security issues is complex and costly, regardless of whether the company’s infrastructure is on-premises or in a public cloud, for while there are good solutions for protecting critical information from theft, data leaks, or deletion, their implementation entails the integration of several layers, and this requires significant efforts in technology, training, and the hiring of diverse know-how.

There are good news however: security in the cloud is simpler, faster, and more economical, because public clouds offer many services that are natively integrated into the platform and are fast to deploy, if implemented and operated by a specialist. For example, encrypting disks on-premises required the purchase of special storage devices or encryption appliances, which are subject to acquisition times; this, combined with the need of a specialists for its configuration, made everything more complicated. In contrast, in public clouds all that is required is a configuration flag and it has no additional cost.

Why is cloud security more economical?

Cloud security services are included in the provider’s managed services and are paid for effective use. They do not require initial investment and there is no charge for unnecessary or oversized capacity.

There are no facilities or hardware maintenance costs, and there is no need to manage servers or security devices.

In fact, currently it is possible to have high levels of security standards in the cloud, for there are many options available. However, defining which is better suited for each company’s requirements must be done cautiously; moreover, building cloud security requires professional management.

At Novis we have the specialized knowledge needed to implement and operate business intelligence solutions in the cloud, with all the security your organization requires.

We invite all SAP clients to Contact us to discuss their projects.

Feedback with the bulletin editor: Gilda Valderrama, gilda.valderrama@noviscorp.com