Key Pricing and TCO Practices for Cloud BI

Leaders from all around the globe face challenges and pressure to accomplish more tasks in shorter periods of time and they demand agile analytics tools to make fully informed decisions quickly.

Also, business users expect to have access to a system where they can analyze data when and where they choose to, without the need to wait on IT to deliver customized reports or to deploy analytics tools to departments once there’s
availability in the IT project pipeline.

Indeed, as organizational workloads become close to sophistication and legacy systems, pushing enterprise architectures to their boundaries, businesses are requiring greater agility, increased flexibility, faster time-to-value, and real economic impact.

That is why senior executives from every single organization are and think that migrating to cloud-based analytics platforms.

One of the most attractive selling points for cloud analytics is the use of a more flexible OpEx (Operating Expenditures) pricing model. Under an OpEx pricing model for cloud analytics, there’s no long-term commitment to the tools and assets being invested in. Companies typically pay for cloud analytics services on a monthly, quarterly or annually basis, offering greater flexibility.

In addition, companies that rely on cloud analytics automatically receive software updates and new features immediately without having to endure costly and time-consuming efforts to install updates from IT departments.

Moreover, the up-front cost avoidance offered through the OpEx model enables organizations to free up cash flow.

By comparison, under a CapEx (capital expenditures) model for premise-based analytics, companies not only have to pay annual software licensing and maintenance fees for analytics tools, but also for associated servers, peripheral devices, and IT staff to support these technologies.

Shifting to an OpEx model under the use of cloud-based analytics also enables organizational leaders to improve time-to-value through the use of analytics by avoiding the lengthy process for obtaining budgetary approvals for capital investments. Instead of waiting weeks or months to have funding approved and to install premise-based analytics software, companies that use cloud-based analytics tools can become operational within days or even hours.