What is Cognos in the Cloud?
Cloud analytics is very simply a way of processing Data Analysis and Business Intelligence over the internet. It uses Cloud infrastructure (in our case IBM's powerful SmartCloud platform) to provide software to the end user on demand.
The software – the Cognos suite – is held by us, maintained by us and administered by us. You don’t have to think about that. All you have to do is set the model up and use it.
How can this work remotely?
Elsewhere in this section you can find out more about what the Cloud is and what its benefits are. But how does that lend itself to Business Analytics?
The simple answer is ‘It lends itself very well’. The nature of all Data Analysis – store data records, define what elements you require, measure the results and report on them – is very similar in format to Cloud based software in any case.
One of the key parts of the Cloud is it works by bringing down only parts of the software at any one time (because of the way the internet works). With BI and data analytics, you are only ever looking at one small part of the overall picture. Bringing part of the software or part of the data is practically the same process.
(Click to watch a quick video from IBM on SmartCloud.)
Already using Business Analytics?
All the better. It’s likely that you will already have your model set up. Getting this into the Cloud could not be more straightforward. You simply upload your existing model, cubes and all, and we take care of the rest.
This means getting the benefits of working in the Cloud does not entail the time, effort and expense it required to get your original model in place.