How’s your Cloud Intelligence? BI or BS?

Featured article by Deirdre Mahon, Cloud Cruiser

I think there is one thing we can all agree on: Data analytics is something most of us crave, because we see immediate value by having information depicted in ways that provide deeper insights on something previously unknown. As we watch the US presidential candidates rise and fall on their campaign trails, the poll results roll in quickly, letting us know who is leading the pack and who is being pushed out. Data doesn’t lie. Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, the data gives near-instantaneous results on who’s in and who’s out. The media then can have a “field day” and we know what possibilities transpire after that.

Apparently the job of a data scientist is one of the hottest right now, especially in the tech sector. While commanding high salaries, we also know that there is a shortage of skilled resources and high demand. We can’t seem to get enough analytics or business intelligence. According to this recent CIO article “Having inaccurate or incomplete data is bad for business.” However, only 40 percent of C-level executives are “very confident” in the quality of their organization’s data, according to 451 Research analyst Carl Lehmann in a recent report (albeit one sponsored by a vendor). Juxtapose this with the fact that 94 percent of senior IT leaders claim that poor data quality impinges business outcomes, resulting in potentially lost revenue or bad strategic decision-making.

It’s pretty amazing how far we have come in the world of business intelligence. It’s not just the visualization of the data but the ability to share or democratize this data (or information) across many stakeholders. Most modern applications have built-in analytics capabilities or of course you can grow-your-own in a world where dev-ops teams can take advantage of powerful BI tools or code their own quickly from scratch. Take Microsoft’s Power BI product, which now claims the ability to publish different content pieces to their web app and therefore to a wider range of constituents. Power BI also recently took the coveted leadership position in Gartner’s BI Magic Quadrant. According to this Forrester report, the key ingredients for BI success are:

1 . They Need To Align With Business Goals

2 . Agility Is The Most Important Characteristic Of All Processes

3 . A Solid Governance Foundation Is More Important Than Ever

Let’s consider this in the context of Cloud usage and the relevant analytics required to make wiser decisions. Migration to the cloud is growing at a staggering pace and one must assume that “better BI with that” will not only guide the level of investment, regardless of organization size, but also hold cloud users accountable.  I decided to “steal” some good ideas from a leading BI vendor, Tableau. This Brighttalk webcast shares the top BI trends and I really like how they explain the most important aspects of doing good BI or put another way, making sound decisions without relying on guesswork (aka BS!)

I picked some of my personal favorites. According to Tableau some of the top indicators for doing “good BI” are:

1. Self-service in a governance world

2. Visual analytics becomes a common language

3. The data product chain is becoming democratized

4. Data integration gets exciting

5. Advanced analytics is no longer for analysts

If we apply some of these trends to deriving intelligence from your cloud usage and spend, this is how it would play out:

1. Self-service in a governance world:

Cloud spending is on the rise and shadow IT is a key contributor. Tech professionals don’t want to be the “cloud cops” policing every use-case and expenditure. However, they do want access to the usage information and to be able to show relevant metrics back to the business in order to see exactly what services are being consumed, keeping all informed every step of the way. Having full transparency and accountability drives future behavior and becomes a win-win, not only for business but also IT, who hold responsibility for governance. Think of it like spending against a checking account but never seeing a balance statement.

2. Visual analytics as a common language

When you get the monthly bill from your favorite cloud provider, you don’t want it to read like a utilities statement circa 1985. You want to see instantly how it compares to last month or last quarter and you ideally want it by division or business unit or maybe project, application area or geo. All this information is not easily gleaned, unless you have charts and graphical depictions, which instantly tell you the over-aching trends. The visual gets you in the hemisphere and then you can drill in when you spot the unusual spikes. Very few cloud service providers give you the rich visuals you need to easily spot the trends. That is something a cloud analytics vendor is designed to deliver.

3. Data product chain is becoming democratized

Data is the foundation of all intelligence. I previously covered this in a blog here. Without accurate, reliable data, it’s a non-starter. It’s the intelligence you derive from seeing the right data sets at the right time, and in the right format! Let’s say you share east coast sales data with the entire west coast team. Probably not as interesting or relevant – unless you’re head of sales US-wide. Everyone needs their own personalized analytics, based on what they care about and what they need to know. In fact, the ability to augment cloud data with your own specific internal data makes it much more interesting. Check out this short webcast to find out how.

4. Advanced Analytics is no longer for Analysts:

The best part of most SaaS apps today is that they are designed to be intuitive, easy-to-use and faster time to value. By “advanced” we are taking things a step further and making actionable recommendations on what to do next. It’s “intelligent”. In a Cloud analytics application, this would be an alert on unusual activity such as overspending when it wasn’t necessary to get the job done. Another alert would be cloud service prices that increased compared to prior months and you now need to determine why or at least investigate. Optimization is the name of the game and without such advanced analytics, you are either in the dark or have to dig-in deeper to make your own determinations.

With the multi-billion dollars of cloud services spend growing each year, you need to deploy a purpose-built application that tells you exactly where that spend is going and why.   It’s pretty crazy to think that any level of investment is made without some level of transparency and accountability. Sure, cloud services are often less costly, they easily scale with your business and services get spun up quicker than it’s taken to read this article. But if you don’t watch the meter and collect intelligence on what is happening, you will be very surprised when the bills come rolling in.

I encourage you to question the depth and reliability of your cloud usage reporting and analysis. Don’t rely on he-said, she-said or the rudimentary cloud reports delivered after-the-fact or, worse again, your own painful spreadsheet jockeying. Most of all, don’t guess it or BS it. Get the app to do the work so you can get back to your high-value business.

About the Author:

Deirdre is a marketing executive with over two decades of experience spanning start-up, fast-growth, and large public organizations managing diverse teams and a specific focus on building new market segments. She joined Cloud Cruiser after a four year stint at RainStor as VP Marketing & Alliances, where she built the marketing team from the ground up and executed against a hybrid strategy moving from pure OEM/resell to a direct/indirect model supporting sales and partners. Previously, she worked at GoldenGate as Senior Director of Marketing, then as Senior Director of Product Management after an Oracle acquisition in 2009. Deirdre has a Bachelor of Social Science and Economics degree from University College Dublin and an MBA from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in London.