Business Intelligence in the Clouds
Cloud computing is high on hype but I think it’s going to cross the chasm. Cloud computing is IT infrastructure as a service. It is on-demand CPU, disk space and software that is virtual and scalable and available via the Internet. It opens the possibility of any software developer to have a web app available that can grow or shrink with demand. For example, a store front may need to grow by orders of magnitude over the Christmas holiday shopping season but need much less capacity in the following months. A cloud solution allows you to pay for what you use. This scalable infrastructure on demand seems to be a great architecture for a business intelligence solution except for two questions. Will it meet security requirements and will there be enough bandwidth to transfer data to the data repositories?
At Market Street Solutions we are researching the use of cloud computing resources in business intelligence and performance management. We are creating example architectures in Microsoft, IBM Cognos and QlikView. My project is to create a prototype Microsoft Business Intelligence server in the cloud. I will be using Microsoft SQL Server with Analysis Services and Reporting Services along with SharePoint and PerformancePoint on an Amazon EC2 instance.
I’m building a model BI server on Amazon’s Compute Cloud — EC2. The process involves creating key pairs, security groups, Elastic Block volumes, images, instances, AMI’s, S3 buckets and several other terms that that business intelligence professionals didn’t use on a daily basis, if ever. I think that this is going to shake the foundations of IT and the way we build systems.
Microsoft Business Intelligence Webinar – 3/17/09
We are presenting a free webinar on Changes in Microsoft’s BI Strategy at 2pm on Tuesday, March 17th. We will introduce Microsoft’s BI strategy, explain how it evolved, show how organizations can benefit from recent licensing changes, and give a live demo of creating scorecards and dashboards.
In January, Microsoft announced a major change in their business intelligence product strategy. PerformancePoint – Microsoft’s dashboard, analytics and scorecard creation software – will no longer be a standalone product and going forward will be included with SharePoint Enterprise. This is a significant change considering that previously PerformancePoint Server carried a list price of $20,000 per server and $199 per user. Now firms that already own SharePoint Enterprise and SQL Server can use PerformancePoint to begin creating and deploying business intelligence solutions.
Details and registration can be found at Changes in Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Strategy
SQL Server 2008 SSAS training scheduled
We are scheduled to deliver the Microsoft course – 6234 Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services – at New Horizons in Chattanooga on 4/27/09 – 4/29/09. This should be the beginning of a great partnership between Market Street Solutions and New Horizons. We can leverage our expertise in business intelligence using Microsoft SQL Server and Dynamics combined with New Horizon’s learning center and training sales and administration experience.
About
A Market Street Solutions business intelligence advisory consultant with deep experience in Microsoft and Cognos data warehousing architecture, data modeling, data loading and reporting. Microsoft certified – MCITP, MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) - in Business Intelligence and Database Development, Wharton MBA, chess player, dog lover, and husband. I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with my wife Jill, son Henry, dogs Bubba and Caesar, and cats Priscilla, Elvis, Prudence and Precious.
Email me, please: will.thrash@marketstreetsolutions.com
Twitter: @willthrash1
Website: Market Street Solutions
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