Necto on Azure The Ultimate Cloud Solution for BI TECHNICAL WHITEPAPER
Introduction Organizations of all sizes and sectors need Business Intelligence (BI) to scale operations, improve performance and remain competitive. A BI cloud solution is easily accessible and provides a costeffective way for these businesses to maximize their potential while controlling costs. Panorama s Azure-based BI solution offers substantial business benefits, including: Flexible access options for users Faster Return on Investment (ROI) Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TOC) Agility & flexibility to easily expand and reduce the number of users and content as needed Scalability in size to achieve business continuity and manageability during growth cycles Greater transparency of business processes Organizations require a Cloud BI solution that offers a wide range of features that are scalable, easy to use, and quick to deploy. Ideally, this solution would run on a secure and robust cloud platform (Platformas-a-Service) to ensure data protection. Panorama Necto is the ultimate BI 3.0 solution for collaborative decision-making. It runs on Windows Azure and provides organizations of all sizes with: Top of the line BI analytics solutions for analysts and business users The ultimate social BI tool Collective intelligence for faster and better decision-making Higher ROI through increased productivity and value An easy-to-use solution (no need for extensive training) Windows Azure Windows Azure is Microsoft s state-of-the-art cloud platform for Microsoft software packages and other 3rd party software. As part of its cloud strategy, Microsoft is bringing the online versions of its communication and collaboration products together in Azure, including SharePoint, Lync and Office 365. Azure as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) allows for the building, hosting and scaling of web applications through Microsoft datacenters in the cloud. Using Azure does not require any up-front expenses or long term commitments users pay for the resources they use. With Azure, organizations can focus on the applications they need (such as Necto), and IT departments do not need additional resources to support the infrastructure. 2
Why Azure? Robust PaaS platform Affordable platform access Cost-effective; pay-as-you-go Secure environment Scalable Easy access User-friendly Short learning curve Supports various storage types Business tool for generating revenues Windows Azure consists of various services, including Compute and Windows Azure Storage. The Compute Service supports three roles: web role, worker role and VM role. The web role, which runs on Windows, and the worker role, used for arbitrary tasks, do not have a Windows user interface. The third role, VM, appears as regular Windows, including all features and benefits. The Storage Service allows scalable storage in the cloud to meet massive volume and throughput demands. Data is accessible via applications such as Necto running on Azure or from anywhere via the Internet. Azure supports various storage types such as tables, queues, binary large objects (blobs), and drives. The Windows Azure platform supports Internet protocols like HTTP, XML, SOAP and REST to encourage running 3 rd party software developers on Azure. Panorama Necto Traditional Business Intelligence solutions are often complicated for users in an organization. Many users do not have the expertise needed to compile views or relevant reports. Analytical tools are too complicated to use and require extensive training. In most cases, it is the responsibility of IT departments and analysts to generate reports, insights, KPIs, and analysis. Panorama Necto allows users to access relevant information quickly. Necto is an intelligent BI platform with an added layer of social business intelligence that runs on Microsoft Azure. Utilizing Windows Azure, Necto enables corporate users to easily harness BI 3.0 for better and faster data insight. With Necto, business users (sales, marketing, or operations) have easy access to insight and analysis tools that are relevant to their tasks. Necto s sophisticated social tools enable corporate users to truly collaborate in a social business environment, allowing them to gain better and faster insight into relevant information. Why Necto? Delivers an innovative BI 3.0 solution Delivers the most advanced analytics solution available Provides automated insights Enables social intelligence Fast learning curve for end users Uses interactive UI Enables users to add their own data Easy setup of security setting ( who does what ) Necto is the first BI 3.0 solution that analyzes users behavior, understands their preferences, recommends insights, and suggests to users who they should collaborate with. 3
Necto s features include: Analytics for quick and easy query and analysis using interactive interface. Workboards for creating interactive, collaborative and personalized dashboards. Social Intelligence for harnessing the power of many when working on BI. Visuals for intuitive and powerful illustration of data and business insights. Powerful search for intuitive search without the need to know a particular data structure. Intelligent BI engine (AIDEN) that learns and understands users behavior in order to generate the right insight from the data, place them into context and automatically deliver them for analysis and decision making. Utilizing MS Azure for seamless integration with MS online products on the MS cloud platform. Necto consists of three key pillars: 1. Relevancy Business users receive automated relevant data and insights. This information is contextual, which makes it easier and faster for business users to understand it, resulting in significant time saving. 2. Social The interests of corporate users and their interactions with data are tracked and leveraged to forge social connections and create collective enterprise intelligence. 3. Self-service An interactive User Interface especially designed by business users, for business users, allowing to create their own views and reports and to expand usage and generate insight. IT departments will no longer be required to manage this process, and they will realize significant savings. Forty-seven percent of respondents in a recent survey said they are not confident in their business intelligence strategies. Sixty-one percent of respondents said the low confidence stems from a lack of enterprise-wide strategies and 57 percent said they don't have the staff to carry out planned projects. As for those IT leaders who are confident in their use of BI, 51 percent said it is because their strategies are closely aligned to business needs. *Source: IT Executive Outlook survey 4
How does Necto work with Azure? Necto is installed and runs on the Azure platform providing smart and comprehensive analysis services for BI in a variety of possible configurations that give organizations different ways to utilize their BI. There are four different ways in which Necto is utilized in the Azure environment: 1. Necto for SQL on Azure VM Analyzed data is uploaded to SQL on the Azure VM as a data warehouse, where it is processed by Analysis Services and then accessed by Necto. Necto runs on top of SQL and Analysis Services and provides the layer of smart analysis and BI. The analyzed data can originate from on-premise or hosted environments, or a combination of the two. Features and benefits: Turning on-premise data into BI 3.0 Increased Accessibility Faster ROI and lower TOC Gives SAP and Oracle users an easy option to utilize Microsoft technology and Necto. 2. SQL Azure Analyzed data is uploaded to SQL as a centralized data warehouse. Analysis Services and Necto utilize Azure VM to provide a layer of smart analysis and BI. Features and benefits: Bringing SQL Azure data to the next level with Necto s BI 3.0 capabilities. No need to install and maintain a separate SQL server for a data warehouse Relational data handling is more scalable SaaS cube generation is faster and more scalable In the future, Microsoft is planning to provide Analysis Services on Azure, which will make Necto s data handling and cube management even more seamless. 3. Enhance an existing software solution s offering by providing BI 3.0 services Software developers who market hosted solutions can use Necto to offer a hosted BI solution without changing their business model or go-to-market strategies. In this case the data will be collected to SQL on Azure,as outlined in scenarios 1 and 2. Necto then enables end-customers to safely and securely use BI 3.0. If SQL or SQL Azure is already used by the originating software, Necto may utilize direct access to the hosted Analysis Services. Features and benefits: Complete cloud-based solution Easy setup Easy integration 5
4. Analyses Services is installed on-premise The data on the originating systems, the SQL server and Analysis Services are all already onpremise. Necto which is hosted on Azure on a VM role, connects from the cloud and provides services to on-premise or cloud users. Features and benefits: Unleashes on-premise data with cloud exposure Utilizes existing investments (in SQL server, hardware) Allows for natural transition from an on-premise environment to the Azure Cloud Necto and Azure Security Necto and Azure keep data safe. Necto s authentication ensures that only the correct users have access to certain data. On Azure, Necto can authenticate users of its own cloud solution as well as setting up security rules (Online Analytic Processing or OLAP security) to define user permissions. This authentication is one of three possible usage scenarios. The following usage scenarios are possible, depending on an organization s need. 1. Proprietary users of Necto; login is authenticated by Necto. 2. Using the Active Directory of the organization; client-based authentication is sent back on-premise to the organization. 3. Windows Live; Azure Authentication Necto also allows for direct linking to originating data in third party database. For the last 14 years, Panorama has been a strategic Microsoft partner and continually adds innovation on top of the Microsoft platform. Necto will bring to market an end-to-end BI solution that will ultimately transform the landscape of business intelligence as we know it. Claude Lorenson, director of SQL Server marketing at Microsoft Corp. 6
Conclusions and Recommendations Business Intelligence (BI) has evolved from just creating reports to a forward-looking business tool that boosts business growth. Necto s BI 3.0 capabilities leverage the cloud to enable true collaborative decision-making. To build corporate intelligence, an organization needs to opt for a smart cloud solution that runs on a robust cloud platform. Panorama s Necto running on Windows Azure is the perfect answer. In our fast-moving, highly competitive world, organizations need to embrace BI 3.0 to be profitable, to expand, and to keep ahead of the competition. Embracing BI 3.0 has never been easier Necto running on Azure provides organizations of all sizes with the platform and tools they need to turn their business intelligence into social BI - quickly, securely, and efficiently. 7
Panorama Software Panorama Software helps companies grow revenues, reduce costs and improve corporate performance by enabling social decision making and unlocking actionable insights contained within their data. Leading the Business Intelligence 3.0 revolution, Panorama Software offers a new generation of BI solutions that introduces a unique way to connect data, insights, and people in the organization. Panorama Necto is the first BI solution that leverages Social Decision Making and Automated Insights to enable users gain insights more quickly, more efficiently, and with greater relevancy. Necto end-to-end BI suite includes Analytics, Social BI, Automated Relevant Insights, Smart Reporting, Dashboards/Workboards and integration with Microsoft Office/SharePoint. Necto is designed to work on top of any data source - OLAP, Relational, Spreadsheets or In-Memory. Founded in 1993, Panorama Software is the original developer of the OLAP technology that was acquired my Microsoft in 1996, which was rebranded as SQL Server Analysis Services and integrated into the SQL Server platform. Since that sale, Panorama has been a close and strategic Microsoft partner, delivering the only Business Intelligence application that is specifically designed for the Microsoft platform. Panorama streamlines business operations through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premise BI solution for over 1,600 customers worldwide, including some of the world s largest financial services, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications and media companies. Panorama has a wide eco-system of partners in 30 countries, and maintains offices throughout North America, EMEA and Asia. To learn more about Panorama Software, please visit www.panorama.com. Worldwide United States Europe Israel, Asia-Pacific 164 Eglinton Avenue East 1230 Avenue of the Americas Berkeley Square House, 6, Raoul Wallenberg St. Suite #100 Suite #7109 2nd Floor 5th Floor Toronto, ON M4P 1G4 New York, NY 10020 Berkeley Square, London Ramat Hachayal Canada USA W1J 6BD Tel Aviv, 69719 Phone: +1.416.545.0990 Phone: +1.877.709.5848 Phone: +44.207.887.6300 Israel Fax: +1.416.545.0877 Fax: +1.877.709.5888 Fax: +44.207.887.6100 Phone: +972.3.645.9777 Fax: +972.3.648.0085 Germany: Reply Deutschland AG Ursula Kahan Senior Manager Arnulfstraße 27 80335 München T. +49 +89 411142-0 F. +49 +170 4546228 u.kahan@reply.de; www.reply.de Panorama Software 2011