When clients ask what the best platform is for their growing company, we always consider the answer based on their specific requirements. Usually, most need near real-time data for a relatively low price without the need to maintain an application infrastructure or, of late, a data warehouse infrastructure. Cloud Computing is the delivery of on-demand resources (computational power, database storage, applications or other IT...

Potential cloud consumers are responsible for doing their due diligence by selecting the right cloud service provider (CSP) for their organization. It is important to educate all staff involved in the deployment on the basics of the selected CSP, architecture, services, and tools available to assist in the deployment. Additionally, they must ensure everyone understands the CSP’s security model and its impact on their role in the...

One of the hottest fields today is data science. With so many buzzwords and terms around the fields of business and data analytics, data science, business intelligence, performance management, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, it’s possible to spend a lot of time and energy trying to work out how everything fits together. The easiest way to try and understand these overlapping fields is by envisioning business...

You are nearing end of support for IBM Cognos Series 7 and you would like to get up to the latest and greatest IBM Cognos Analytics platform. However, the challenge is that the architecture on which IBM Cognos Series 7 is based is generations behind IBM Cognos Analytics 11. How would you go about planning for your migration from IBM Cognos Series 7 to IBM Cognos Analytics version 11? Indeed, it takes careful planning and setting the...

An organization’s BI needs grow as business strategies adjust to a new business landscape. Acquisitions and mergers, regulatory requirements, and the user community can drive changes in BI requirements. To support the key decision makers with a 360-degree view of the business, data from existing sources needs to be integrated with new data sources, such as from SAP B1, that may arise from such changes. Data integration strategies...