In the year gone by – 2017 – the trends that dominated were in the realms of analytics of things, FinTech and self-service analytics, artificial intelligence, decentralization of data, and several others. According to market experts, these trends will continue to remain in the forefront, but other trends would also make an entry in the New Year 2018.

The two IT initiatives which are at the top of mind of CXOs of small as well as large enterprises are big data analytics and cloud computing. By leveraging big data analytics, organizations are able to gain actionable insights through internal and external data which can help them create competitive advantage, innovate faster, and see increased revenues through new revenue streams. Cloud Computing, on the other hand, promises an IT service delivery model which allows organizations to be agile, enhance their productivity and efficiency, and also reduce costs. Businesses are increasingly getting convinced that business intelligence and analytics is one of the key business initiatives which can benefit tremendously from cloud deployment.

According to the EMA and Informatica State of Cloud Analytics Report survey by Deloitte, over 70 percent of the respondents believe that cloud is an essential part of their analytics strategy.

What Makes Big Data and Cloud a Match Made in Heaven?

Let us take a look at some studies and research reports –

• According to a BARC research, the adoption of the cloud BI solutions has grown 50% in the past three years.
• Approximately 50% of top executives believe that Cloud BI is critical and very important to their information needs.
• According to a study on BI and data management in Cloud, in the coming year, 69% of companies plan to increase their use of cloud BI

There are several advantages which cloud computing offers for big data and analytics –

Lower Cost of Ownership

Enterprises which want to take advantage of the cutting-edge technologies without making any one-time capital investment in hardware and software find cloud computing to be the most ideal solution. Companies can pick and choose whichever resources they need and pay as they go based on the actual usage. With cloud computing, enterprises have quick and easy access to resources required to manage their big data and analytics solutions.

Extensibility and Flexibility

The large data sets big data and advanced computing and processing requirements of analytics can be easily fulfilled by cloud computing. The cloud environment can accommodate the demands for rise and fall of the computing requirements without any issues. Through the SaaS models, enterprises can increase the resources multi-fold at a click of a button without any pre-commitment or affront costs.

Agility

Traditionally, organizations needed to procure hardware and software. Once acquired, there were additional activities such as software installations and server setups. All these things would take days or even weeks. With cloud computing, enterprises have access to hundreds of virtual servers which they can start using within a matter of few minutes. This gives extreme flexibility to business stakeholders allowing them to quickly respond to market conditions.

Enhanced Security and Privacy

Several big and infamous breaches in data security and otherwise, have raised the awareness and need for cybersecurity. Responding to the need for data privacy and security, there are now a number of checks and tools in place intended to strengthen cloud security. For example – The creation of data layers in the cloud ensures that even if one layer is infringed; the other layer would continue to fortify the data. This is one of the key benefits of using cloud computing. With the use of advanced technologies such as encryption and blockchain, the cloud providers are able to offer an extremely high level of data security. Organizations don’t have to worry about their data security and privacy or software updates – everything is taken care of by the cloud providers.

Private, Public or Hybrid Cloud

With cloud computing, organizations have the flexibility to deploy their big data projects on private, public or hybrid clouds. Enterprises which require direct control over their cloud environment for regulatory compliance or security reasons can choose to go with private cloud. Organizations which need to perform on-demand big data tasks that require quick access to huge computing power with the flexibility to pay only for the resources used typically choose to go with the public cloud. Hybrid clouds offer the organizations the flexibility to migrate between private and public cloud.

The Future

The route and course in the long-term for cloud computing with regard to data usage and analytics is certain. The cloud is poised to connect the central aspects of data management and analytics, as the channel through which big data, IoT, and AI would be accessed. The practicality and feasibility of the importance of cloud to data analytics and management is based on its underlying models.

To leverage the full benefits of Cloud Computing, enterprises need a trusted technology partner, who has a deep understanding of cloud computing, the latest technology, and also big data analytics. The partner should be able to use the knowledge to successfully design, develop, and manage the entire effort.