News

Azure Named Preferred Cloud BI Provider in New Report

• By David Ramel
• 04/02/2020

At least in one area, Microsoft's Azure has upended perennial cloud computing leader AWS: business intelligence.

"Microsoft Azure is the most preferred cloud BI provider, followed by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud," says Dresner Advisory Services in the 2020 edition of its continuing research, titled "Cloud Computing and Business Intelligence Market Study."

In addressing cloud BI provider preference, Dresner said, "We asked respondents to rank their preferred (named) third-party cloud BI provider. In our 2020 sample, Microsoft Azure receives the strongest endorsement, with 44 percent expressing critical importance and 77 percent reporting either critical or very important relevance. Amazon Web Services is the second choice with 33 percent critical and 66 percent combined critical and very important relevance. Google Cloud is the third choice with 22 percent critical and 41 percent combined critical and very important scores."

"According to the study, Cloud/Software as a Service (SaaS) is the 12th most strategic initiative in BI among the 37 topics under study, with an all-time high of 54 percent of respondents indicating cloud BI is either critical or very important," said the firm in a news release. "Respondents show interest in a wide range of cloud BI-related features, led by data integration/data quality/ETL, advanced visualization, ad-hoc query, and production reporting."

Dresner cautioned that its report is a summary of opinions expressed in the responses of people who responded to an online questionnaire and should be used for informational purposes only, not for choosing a vendor. The report is part of the firm's Wisdom of Crowds Market Study series. As this is the ninth such report, Dresner was able to identify changes in opinions over time. Some of those as listed in executive summary highlights include:

• An all-time high 54 percent say cloud BI is either critical or very important, and mean sentiment is also at an all-time high. Criticality is less contingent on organization size. Industry importance is at an all-time high.
• Interest in public cloud BI slowed slightly in the past two years, even in small organizations. Public cloud plans are stronger in North America compared to other regions. Industry support for SaaS is at 66 percent, and public/private user models are well supported.
• Respondents show interest in a wide range of cloud BI features, led by data integration/data quality/ETL, advanced visualization, ad-hoc query, and production reporting. Feature interest is lower this year compared to years past.
• Access and support (ahead of cost) are leading perceived benefits of cloud BI, while security remains a top but diminishing barrier.
• Current use and future plans for deploying cloud BI are both growing at a slower pace than previously observed.
• Fewer organizations increase spending in all cloud models compared to last year; higher percentages maintaining their current investments.

The for-pay report is available here.