Avoid Vendor Lock-in With Cloud-Agnostic BI
Many AI analytics platforms force enterprises into an impossible choice: adopt cloud-only solutions that compromise data governance and security policies or forgo AI capabilities entirely. But there’s a significant problem with that: most companies aren’t 100% cloud-based, and those that are vary between whether they operate in the public cloud, private cloud, or a hybrid environment.
In fact, according to a recent report by insightsoftware and Hanover Research, 13% of organizations are entirely cloud-based while 86% work with a hybrid-cloud infrastructure. One challenge with these different varieties is that certain vendors only offer their technology if you’re on their cloud platform. If your customers need flexibility, they lose out.
For organizations with on-premises or hybrid infrastructure, regulatory requirements, or data sovereignty mandates, this isn’t a choice at all—it’s a barrier to innovation. Here, we’ll discuss how to provide flexible business intelligence and analytics without being locked into a vendor’s ecosystem.
The Great Cloud Reset
In recent years, businesses have moved to more flexible employee structures with remote capabilities and mobile access. They’ve also organized cloud data backups in case of security breaches and other risks. Despite quick thinking and action to go digital, businesses often weren’t left with enough time to create a strong cloud strategy.
This leads us to today, when organizations are rethinking the way they operate in the cloud. Broadcom’s Private Cloud Outlook calls this a “cloud reset.” According to their report, 69% of enterprises are considering or already moving from the public cloud to a private cloud environment.
The study also found that 92% of IT leaders trust private cloud more for security and compliance, a top priority for all IT departments. Cost is also a major driver. Broadcom’s report highlights that IT leaders believe as much as a quarter of their cloud spend is wasted.
So what does this mean for analytics? It means that you, and potentially your customers if you’re embedding BI into your applications, need flexibility. However, that isn’t possible when vendors force you into their ecosystem. Choose their BI, and suddenly you’re choosing their cloud. You are tied to Microsoft, Google, or Amazon regardless of whether it’s the best fit for your strategy.
Embracing Cloud Neutrality
Analytics projects are long-lived with average deployments lasting for years. Strategy, on the other hand, changes quickly as budgets shift, regulations tighten, and leadership turns over. If your analytics platform only works one way, you risk betting your future flexibility on today’s decisions.
This isn’t limited to your internal strategy. Think about what this means for your customers if you are embedding analytics into your product. If you lock into one ecosystem, you may alienate entire segments of your market right from the start. While some customers want public cloud, others need private or on-premises, while many expect hybrid. If you can’t meet them where they are, you create stumbling blocks in your sales process. To give your customers the variety they need, you must meet them where they are with cloud neutrality.
Neutrality turns deployment flexibility into a competitive advantage. It lets you sell into more markets, close deals faster, and keep customers longer because you can say yes to their preferred environment from the start. How can you achieve cloud neutrality? When embedding analytics into your application, ensure you’re building or buying a solution that works within your customer’s cloud ecosystem.
Core Technologies
To ensure your embedded analytics technology is flexible enough to meet the needs of any user, these tools are what make neutrality possible:
Containers are a simple way of packaging software so that it runs the same way anywhere.
Kubernetes is the system that manages containers. It keeps them running, restarts them if something fails, and scales them up or down. That means your analytics can grow with demand and shrink when it is quiet, automatically.
Helm charts are blueprints for Kubernetes. They automate installation, configuration, and upgrades. With Helm, you can deploy or update your embedded analytics software in minutes.
Persistent storage makes sure your data, logs, and settings survive even if a container restarts. That way, your analytics environment is stable and reliable.
Secrets management is how you store the credentials and keys your applications need so that your embedded analytics functionality can connect securely to your data sources without exposing sensitive information.
Not every BI vendor approaches it this way. While some platforms give you freedom to choose, others quietly take that freedom away. And once you are locked into their model, it can be very difficult to change.
When you’re looking for embedded analytics that works with customers at any point during their cloud journey, Logi Symphony is an embedded analytics solution that meets analytics and BI needs without vendor lock-in. Logi Symphony provides dashboards, reporting, and AI insights delivered right inside your application. With Logi Symphony, you can deliver insights to customers who work in:
- Public cloud
- Private cloud
- On-premises
- Hybrid environments
And with Simba Intelligence, you can embed governed AI directly into your platform for accurate, compliant insights without copying or moving data. With Logi Symphony and Simba Intelligence, you don’t have to choose one type of cloud platform forever. You can start in public cloud for speed, move to private cloud for control, or run on-premises for sovereignty and cost efficiency. And if your strategy changes, your analytics can move with it.
Ready to learn more? Watch our on-demand webinar, BI Without Limits: Containerize, Scale, and Deploy Anywhere.
BI Without Limits: Containerize, Scale, and Deploy Anywhere
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