6 Predictions For Business Intelligence In 2012 A look at in-memory analysis, visual discovery, big data, mobile BI, cloud

and social BI achievements in 2011 and forecasts for the year ahead.
1 Comment|Cindi Howson, BI Scorecard| January 19, 2012 11:42 AM

When we set New Year's resolutions in our house, we tend to tweak the list for a few weeks, figuring out what's more wishful thinking versus realistically achievable. Then up they go, taped to the kitchen cupboard over last year's lists. It's always a chuckle, sometimes an inspiration, to compare last year's list with this year's. With this approach in mind, here's a look at the top BI trends from 2011 and what's in store for 2012.

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In-Memory Analysis In-memory technology continued to take center stage in 2011, with its ability to provide speed-of-thought analysis on everincreasing amounts of data. SAP's in-memory appliance, HANA, became generally available in June. Oracle later announced its own in-memory appliance, Exalytics, at its Oracle Open World conference in October. The appliance combines capabilities from in-memory database TimesTen with new visual discovery capabilities. It was expected to be released late last year, but it's still not available, and Oracle has yet to provide an update on release plans. IBM Cognos released its dynamic query mode, or in-memory for relational databases, last fall. SAS has also begun supporting in-memory as part of its industry solutions. [ Want more on business intelligence and analytics? Read our 2012 BI and Information Management Trends report. ] In the year ahead, large enterprises may gradually adopt high-end appliances such as Hana and Exalytics, but the majority of customers will continue to embrace more nimble in-memory solutions from vendors such as QlikTech, Microsoft (Power Pivot), and Tableau or software-only solutions, such as the approach MicroStrategy and IBM Cognos uses. Microsoft will release a new version of PowerPivot with better security and support for hierarchies, capabilities lacking in the current release. Visual Discovery Visual discovery and in-memory are not synonymous, despite some industry confusion and the fact that many visual discovery tools have an in-memory engine. MicroStrategy entered this market last year with its Visual Insight product. Both QlikTech and TIBCO Spotfire released new versions of their products toward the end of 2011 with slightly different areas of focus. QlikTech touted collaboration and comparative analysis. TIBCO Spotfire's latest release simplifies dashboard design while also improving collaboration. Tableau 7 was released this week, bringing improvements in visualizations as well as enterprise deployability. Visual discovery will be a busy segment in 2012. SAS (Visual Analytics Explorer), IBM Cognos, Oracle (Exalytics), and Microsoft (Crescent) have all been previewing visual discovery features to come in 2012. With BI platform vendors releasing

capabilities and, in some instances, bundling those capabilities with existing licenses, customers will continue to wrestle with whether the distinct benefits of the new-breed tools (Tableau, QlikTech, TIBCO Spotfire) is worth a separate investment. Customers have to closely assess what their requirements are and which product is most suitable; is there a payoff in visual appeal and clarity, self-service with no IT involvement, or rapid time to value? Big Data Both in-memory and visual discovery have a role to play with big data. So, too, do data warehouse appliances, columnar databases, and of course, broader support for NoSQL databases such as Hadoop and Cassandra. We had another busy year of acquisitions in 2011 with HP acquiring Vertica and Teradata acquiring Aster Data. No doubt, some of these acquisitions were driven by the 2010 moves of IBM acquiring Netezza and EMC acquiring Greenplum. A number of BI tool vendors are adding support for Hadoop, including Pentaho 4, Jaspersoft 4.5, and Tableau 7, released this week. In addition, a new category of BI tools specifically for Hadoop seems to be emerging with startups such as Datameer and Karmasphere. Splunk, which helps companies collect and analyze machine-generated data, has made a number of executive appointments, fueling speculation of an IPO in 2012. Also in the machine data realm, SAP BusinessObjects Event Insight was released in 2011, bringing real-time data feeds to the BI platform. In the year ahead, expect the leading BI vendors to continue to add support for Hadoop. Don't look for a silver bullet or a single approach in addressing your big data needs. Mobile BI All BI vendors are touting mobile BI as the next big wave. But they continue to argue about development approaches, which content to deliver on which device, and of course, where to place bets on market share. Both Apple and Android devices have steadily eroded BlackBerry's dominance in corporations. The much-anticipated BlackBerry Playbook was a failure, and service interruptions worsened BlackBerry's decline. Meanwhile, some customers are still saying "who cares about Mobile BI," failing to see value beyond executive eye-candy. Expect the confusion and skepticism to continue in 2012. Mobile BI capabilities will continue to improve, with more BI vendors adapting their apps so that tablets support offline or airline mode, better security, and better performance. Vendors who take a Web-app-only approach today will revisit this to provide customers with a better mobile experience. The decline of unlimited data plans will raise demands for better device-based caching. BlackBerry faces an even tougher 2012. Who can rescue them? Which BI vendor will be the first to stop developing on that platform? I can't help but wonder if 2012 will be the year for BlackBerry to get acquired or die a slow death. I will miss my keyboard. And will Microsoft finally make headway in this market? (Page 2 of 2) Cloud BI So many vendors are touting cloud as a way to reduce hardware costs and provide elasticity during peak computing times. For SMBs, in particular, cloud BI provides the promise of easier implementation, without the worry of having to first establish a BI infrastructure. To be sure, cloud computing in general has gained acceptance with certain functional areas. Think payroll or HR or CRM. But in BI, it's a different story. Customers are still anxious about letting go of their data. Historically, there have been trade-offs in functionality with cloud-based BI solutions. Vendors that allow customers to leave data on premise while surfacing dashboards and reports in the cloud, an approach taken by Birst, might be striking the right balance.

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We also saw MicroStrategy enter the cloud arena in 2011. MicroSoft Azure has gained momentum as a cloud platform, and it includes BI capabilities as well as a marketplace of third-party data. SAP announced stepped up initiatives in this area, partnering with Google and now embedding Hand in the SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand service. YellowFin, a start up in Australia, touts a mutlitenant architecture ideal for SaaS OEM vendors. Domo (previously known as Corda) is retrenching to be more SaaS focused. Other SaaS vendors such as PivotLink and Indicee continue to gain customers. [ Want more on business intelligence and analytics? Read our 2012 BI and Information Management Trends report. ] So in 2012, the discussion will shift from "cloud versus on-premise" to "what to put in the cloud." BI products that are mutlitenant will have a leg up for enterprise customers who want a combination of approaches and for SMB customers who want to go with a cloud solution. Social, Collaborative BI Social media is the new software and marketing battle ground. Google launched Google+ as an alternative to Facebook, hitting 50 million users within three months. Facebook has exceeded 800 million users, and even the Republican Presidential debates are now intertwined with Facebook. So what does this have to do with BI? As a way of working, user-driven content without IT as the gatekeeper is increasingly assumed. Collaboration capabilities continue to cross into BI, but ahead of customer demand. Lyzasoft, one of the specialty vendors in the space, had a major new product release in 2011 but is still trying to find its footing. Meanwhile, QlikTech, TIBCO Spotfire, and Panorama released new versions with collaborative capabilities. Information Builders added support for SalesForce Chatter and SAP StreamWork. So vendors are innovating, but are customers adopting? There is no doubt that Microsoft SharePoint 2010 has been a successful portal product. But try to find customers who are using the collaborative capabilities around BI and decision making (if you are out there, please contact me or post a comment here). Ditto for Cognos 10 and the Lotus Connect integration as well as OBIEE Web Center. In 2012, a few early adopters will be the ones to reap the benefits of collaborative BI, both within corporate boundaries and beyond. Already there have been some compelling case studies particularly in healthcare, on how collaboration has saved companies millions, while also improving care. In terms of product highlights, look for SAP Streamwork and SAP BusinessObjects to be better integrated in their feature pack 3 release, due in the first half of 2012. BI Beyond Technology Vendors can innovate, but of course it takes more than software for BI to be successful. Even with the economy limping to recovery, BI talent is scarce. As pent-up demand for BI spending is released, expect this problem to be exacerbated. Companies would be wise to invest in developing BI expertise internally, as it will be hard to recruit talent. Universities need to continue to expand their programs for creating data analysts. While the BI market is poised for a banner year in 2012, it's the European economy and the instability in the Middle East that might disrupt more than just BI. So how did we do in predicting last year's BI themes ? Dashboards did indeed become mainstream, but not yet visual discovery tools. The rest of my predictions seem to have been on the money, although big data and cloud were more high profile than I predicted. If only my adhearance to New Year's was as good! Yoga once a month was more like once a quarter. And after three years of little success with the same resolution, I have now abandoned even trying to curse less, which my children, now teenagers, think is so funny. Happy New Year.

Cindi Howson is the founder of BI Scorecard , an independent analyst firm that advises companies on BI tool strategies and offers in-depth business intelligence product reviews. More than 700 IT pros gave us an earful on database licensing, performance, NoSQL, and more. That story and more-including a look at transitioning to Win 8--in the new all-digital Database Discontent issue of InformationWeek. (Free registration required.)