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8 Questions to Ask When Deciding Between Hyperion 11.2 and Cloud
2021 is finally here – and so is the pressure to decide whether you’re going to upgrade to Hyperion 11.2 (hosted either in your own data center or on an IaaS platform) or move to Oracle EPM Cloud SaaS.
Choosing whether to upgrade or move to SaaS is a complex decision, and there are pros and cons to both options. Although cloud computing and SaaS have become ubiquitous in enterprise IT, many businesses prefer to remain on-premises for reasons of data security or consistency with the rest of their IT ecosystem.
Although 11.2 is Oracle’s last intended major release for its on-premises EPM software, reports of the demise of Hyperion on-premises have been greatly exaggerated. Oracle has guaranteed that it will continue to offer support for Hyperion EPM 11.2 through at least 2030, which makes this option a stable choice over at least the next decade.
On the other hand, Oracle is clearly now a cloud-first company: new features and upgrades roll out to the cloud before they reach their on-premises equivalents. The other benefits of the Oracle cloud include:
- A subscription-based pricing model.
- Scalability and availability.
- Ease of access from anywhere, at any time.
- Reduced need for support and maintenance obligations.
Datavail has helped our Hyperion EPM clients perform both on-premises upgrades and cloud migrations. For example, one of our clients—a global industrial safety company—underwent devastating database outages on a recurring basis. After a three-day outage at the start of a financial close period, the client was impelled to migrate to the Oracle cloud, especially given that the migration would mean support and maintenance would no longer be their responsibility.
Another client, a telecommunications company, recently used Datavail to complete one of the first successful Oracle EPM 11.2 upgrades in the United States. The client decided to remain on-premises during the upgrade for reasons of both simplicity and cybersecurity while leaving open the possibility for cloud migration in the future.
Depending on your circumstances, either solution could be right for you. There are also many alternatives such as hybrid environments or IaaS clouds solutions. As with all of our clients, when making these decisions, we recommend asking these eight questions to ensure your decision is the right one:
- Is a move to the cloud feasible?
- Does the cloud environment include the features and functionality you need to deliver on all of your current business requirements?
- Does the cloud environment meet or exceed your internal IT policies?
- Do you intend to expand your Oracle EPM footprint?
- Is a move to the cloud desirable?
- What do you expect to achieve with an Oracle EPM cloud migration, and how realistic are these expectations?
- Is this the right time for cloud migration? Are your budget and timeline appropriate?
- Do you have other cloud migration projects underway? How will those affect your decision?
In addition to these questions, our experienced team has identified the top 6 factors to consider when weighing an Oracle cloud migration:
Business requirements: Does your existing on-premises environment fulfill your current and future business requirements? How do these compare with the functionality of the cloud?
Business risk: If you’re happy with on-premises, a cloud migration could be a risk—but the cloud also offers benefits such as improved business continuity and disaster recovery, decreasing the existential risk to your business.
The size and complexity of your on-premises footprint: A highly complex on-premises environment can be unwieldy, causing you to contemplate a move to the cloud—but this complexity also makes it more difficult to migrate in the first place.
The maturity of the environment: If you rely on legacy on-premises IT, make sure that a move to the cloud will let you maintain these integrations.
The amount of time and money invested: What resources can you devote to a cloud migration project? Will cloud or on-premises be more cost-effective in the long run?
Future plans: How will cloud or on-premises fit your business in the medium and long term?
Save this blog post, take it to your team, and discuss the answers as a group. You may find there are some additional details that need to be weighed before making your decision, or that additional technical challenges may be present. Better yet, contact Datavail’s expert Oracle EPM team to work with you on this essential decision. As an Oracle Platinum Partner, we are well-positioned to help match your unique circumstances with the product that will best serve you.
For more information on the upcoming Hyperion 11.1.x end of support date, and the potential options for your business, download our white paper, 4 Ways Datavail Prepares Companies for EPM 11.1 End Of Service.
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3 Ways Datavail’s IP Can Jumpstart Your Hyperion Upgrade
Download our paper to first learn about the challenges of executing a successful Hyperion upgrade. Then how Accelatis, our own IP and software suite for Hyperion application performance management, can make your next Hyperion upgrade faster, more efficient, and more cost-effective.
The post 8 Questions to Ask When Deciding Between Hyperion 11.2 and Cloud appeared first on Datavail.
Transforming Information into Insights: Visual Analytics
Visual analytics tools are how businesses turn cold, hard data into clear, beautiful visualizations. The right choice of visual analytics tool will dramatically simplify your data visualization workflows, offering pre-built templates to convert datasets into visual representations (e.g. bars, tables, charts, graphics and even geospatial representations).
In this article, we’ll go over some of the most popular visual analytics tools for building data visualizations, as well as some tips for how to choose the best visual analytics tool for your needs.
5 Visual Analytics Tools for Data Visualization
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Tableau
Tableau is an interactive visual analytics platform that is widely used for BI and analytics workloads. The Tableau product suite consists of the desktop and cloud software versions (Tableau Desktop and Tableau Online, respectively), as well as the Tableau Server tool for hosting and sharing your visualizations with other users. Tableau starts at $70 per month for a single “creator” user, with higher costs for more users and add-ons.
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Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is Microsoft’s visual analytics solution: it easily integrates with and pulls data from the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem (Excel, OneDrive, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, etc.), as well as many other data sources. Power BI Premium costs $20 per user per month, or a flat $4,995 monthly rate for the entire organization, offering features such as artificial intelligence and self-service data preparation.
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Oracle Analytics Cloud
Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) is cloud-based visual analytics software for Oracle customers. It includes a robust set of features for data preparation and cleansing, data visualization, collaboration and more. OAC lets users make use of machine learning and statistical modeling for data discovery, revealing hidden patterns and insights in their enterprise data.
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Qlik Sense
Qlik Sense is a BI and data visualization platform that offers user-friendly, self-service analytics and reporting capabilities. Whereas Power BI and Oracle Analytics Cloud are primarily intended for large enterprises already using the Microsoft and Oracle ecosystems, Qlik Sense is ideal for smaller organizations with less in-house analytics talent available. Qlik pricing starts at $30 per user per month, with custom pricing available for large enterprises.
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SAS Visual Analytics
SAS Visual Analytics is a data visualization and analytics offering from SAS, another enterprise software giant. Users of SAS Visual Analytics can quickly get the big picture from their data while uncovering hidden connections, clusters, outliers, and ideas. According to Capterra, SAS Visual Analytics pricing starts at $8,000 per year.
How to Choose the Right Visual Analytics Tool
The “right visual analytics tool” will depend on your precise business requirements: the data you have on hand, the ways in which you want to represent it, and the skill level of your data analysts. When choosing a visual analytics tool, consider the following factors:
- Compatibility: Selecting a visual analytics tool that works well with your existing data and software is a must. Your choice of tool should either be compatible out of the box, or there should be an easy way to convert your data so that it becomes compatible.
- Integrations: In addition to technical compatibility, also consider how well the tool integrates with your existing IT ecosystem. For example, if you heavily use Microsoft software, picking Microsoft’s own Power BI tool is a natural choice.
- Pricing: The price of enterprise software is always a concern for everyone except the most cash-flush organizations. Decide your budget and your preferred payment model—would you rather purchase software licenses or pay a monthly fee?
- Scalability: For organizations with gigabytes and terabytes of data to analyze, scalability is an essential concern. Choose a tool that’s suitable not only for your current level of usage, but also one that can grow alongside your business. Scalability is a major reason why many businesses use visual analytics tools in the cloud, which can expand your usage of storage and processing power on the fly.
- Ease of use: Some businesses will prefer a visual analytics solution that’s easy to use for even the most non-technical employees, letting them easily spin up visualizations. Others with more in-house expertise will prefer a powerful, highly customizable visual analytics solution that lets users dig deep into the code base.
Conclusion
Visual analytics tools are the most obvious way for you to start bringing data visualizations into your business—but they’re far from the only factor you should think about. Discover how to build a robust, production-ready analytics and visualization pipeline by reading Datavail’s white paper: From Raw Data to Insightful Stories: Transform Analytics into Innovation.
The post Transforming Information into Insights: Visual Analytics appeared first on Datavail.
Your Hyperion Future: 3 Reasons to Move to 11.2 and 3 More Reasons to Choose the Cloud
When using your enterprise software on a day-to-day basis, dealing with mundane glitches and frustrations, it’s easy to forget that you also have to think long-term. Staying on top of your enterprise software licenses and expiration dates is crucial—especially when it comes to mission-critical applications like Oracle Hyperion EPM.
With the end of support date coming up at the end of 2021, it’s time to make the call between upgrading to Hyperion 11.2 and moving to the Oracle EPM SaaS cloud.
Since there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, we’ve put together a quick list of the three main reasons some of our clients choose to stay on-prem and upgrade, and three reasons some of our clients choose to move to Oracle EPM Cloud.
3 Reasons to Upgrade to EPM 11.2
While many organizations continue to move more and more of their IT ecosystem into the cloud, others retain a sizable on-premises footprint. Because Oracle has guaranteed support for Hyperion 11.2 on-premises through at least 2030, companies using 11.1.x may decide that an upgrade to the latest version makes the most sense.
The main three reasons for an on-premises upgrade include:
- Monolithic on-premises legacy technologies that make the prospect of a cloud migration challenging.
- Very large data volumes that would be costly to store in the cloud. In addition, applications that work with on-premises data should also run on-premises if performance is a concern.
- Regulatory and compliance issues that require an air-gapped system on-premises for extremely sensitive data.
Datavail helped one of our clients, a U.S. telecommunications company, tweak and optimize their Hyperion environment during their upgrade to EPM 11.2 on-premises, achieving noticeable performance improvements. The benefits they experienced from upgrading to EPM 11.2 included:
- Remaining in compliance with Oracle support timelines, letting you enjoy new updates, security patches, and technical support.
- New features and functionality, such as a streamlined reporting infrastructure and third-party certifications for Microsoft SQL Server and Google Chrome.
- Oracle also plans future updates such as Linux support, various performance improvements, and changes to Hyperion Financial Management and Hyperion Planning.
- Providing access to Oracle’s “Continuous Innovation” release model for Hyperion. This new model lets you install application updates without needing to upgrade middleware technology as well.
- The option to move their applications from their own data center to an Infrastructure as a Service cloud solution at a future date.
If these reasons resonate with you, then simply upgrading to 11.2 either in your own data center or in an IaaS cloud platform might be the best path forward.
3 Reasons to Migrate to SaaS Cloud
Although staying on-premises remains a viable option, many Hyperion customers choose to migrate to Oracle EPM Cloud.
The three main reasons to move to the cloud are:
- Ease of access: Oracle EPM Cloud makes it easy for users to log on and use the software from anywhere, at any time—which is especially valuable as telecommuting becomes more and more widespread.
- Faster updates: Oracle cloud software receives new feature updates and bug fixes monthly; what’s more, this functionality rolls out to cloud users well before it reaches on-premises. Cloud software can leverage cutting-edge techniques and technologies like AI, the Internet of Things, automation, and the blockchain.
- Cost-effectiveness: Most Oracle customers find that the cloud is more cost-effective than remaining on-premises. The recurring subscription-based payment model is also more attractive than the large capital expenses involved in maintaining on-premises infrastructure.
If these are the benefits your organization is looking for, moving to Oracle EPM Cloud might be the way to go.
Thinking Outside the Box
Of course, moving on-prem or migrating to the cloud aren’t the only two choices. Some of Datavail’s clients have chosen an “app-by-app” cloud migration strategy: uplifting some applications to the cloud before others, based on their priority to the client (or the urgency of the migration). We also support clients who prefer a long-term hybrid cloud strategy: moving part of their Oracle ecosystem to the cloud while keeping other applications on-premises (at least for the time being).
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4 Ways Datavail Prepares Companies for EPM 11.1 End Of Support
Want to learn more about your options as the end of support date for Hyperion 11.1.x nears? Download our white paper.
The post Your Hyperion Future: 3 Reasons to Move to 11.2 and 3 More Reasons to Choose the Cloud appeared first on Datavail.
Transforming Information into Insights: Analytical Applications
Data analytics has become so valuable, and so in vogue, that more and more enterprise applications have been adding their own analytics features and capabilities. The rise of these so-called “analytical applications” means that users can run powerful, in-depth analyses and get beautiful data visualizations within the software itself, rather than needing to switch to another tool.
Below, we’ll discuss different ways that organizations have benefited from augmenting their traditional enterprise IT with powerful, forward-looking data analytics.
Types of Analytical Applications
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The goal of a CRM system is to better serve your customer base by keeping track of your relationship history. This includes information such as the contact information for leads and customers, as well as each interaction they’ve had with your business: downloading gated content, making a purchase, messaging customer support and so on. The best CRM software can create a positive ripple effect across the business—from closing sales deals faster to addressing customer service needs more efficiently.
Enhanced with analytics capabilities, CRM software helps your sales, marketing, and support departments follow people as they progress from leads to converts to loyal customers. Just a few examples of the important KPIs (key performance indicators) to track for CRM software include:
- Lead conversion rate, the percentage of your website visitors who are converted to leads (e.g. by signing up for your newsletter).
- Email click-through rate, the percentage of your newsletter subscribers who click on a link in your email.
- Monthly active users, the number of your customers who use your services or visit your website within the past month.
- Customer lifetime value, the total average revenue that your business can expect to receive from a single account.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Whereas CRM software helps you manage your customer relationships, ERP software helps you keep the organization running smoothly behind the scenes. ERP systems traditionally include a wide range of business functionality, possibly including (but not limited to) project management, supply chain, accounting, financial planning, and human resources.
By adding analytics capabilities to their ERP software, organizations dramatically improve the visibility and transparency of their business processes, gaining deeper insights into their operations as a whole. The important metrics and KPIs to track here will vary depending on the goal of your ERP projects. Some examples include:
- Customer satisfaction, which can be measured through brief surveys (e.g. the Net Promoter Score, asking how likely a customer is to recommend your business to friends and family).
- Process efficiency, which can be measured along multiple axes based on the process itself: speed, accuracy, quality, value, return on investment, etc.
- Employee productivity, which can be measured in multiple ways: establishing a baseline for performance, setting achievable goals and targets, getting employee feedback, etc.
- Financial planning & analysis (FP&A) assess the financial health of your organization, from helping with the quarterly financial consolidation & close process to making better predictions and forecasts. Cutting-edge financial analytics tools allow users to make ad hoc queries and get answers on the fly as they need them—uncovering hidden insights, modeling scenarios and constructing better strategies for the future.
Some important metrics and KPIs for financial analytics include:
- Revenue, which can be tracked along many domains (e.g. per sales team member, per region or location, per time period, per product or service, and so on).
- Gross profit margin, which measures the ratio between revenue and cost of goods sold, assessing how efficiently your business manages its operations.
- EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization), your net business income before the foregoing factors are taken into account.
- Net cash flow, the difference between your total cash and total liabilities during a given time period (i.e. cash flow in vs. cash flow out).
- Length of consolidation and close cycles, which speaks to how well your internal IT and financial processes are running.
Cloud Software
Cloud analytics is a world unto its own, with as many possibilities as there are cloud applications. Using a cloud-based or hybrid model for your enterprise applications, you can scale your analytics operations and capabilities as your business grows.
SaaS (software as a service) applications are hosted on a remote server and provisioned to you over the Internet. Many SaaS applications running in the cloud have their own analytics functionality, or they can be easily integrated with a BI/analytics service from your public cloud provider.
Conclusion
When traditional enterprise IT joins forces with smart data-driven business analytics, the results can help transform your organization. To learn more about the steps of building a mature, robust BI and analytics initiative for your business, check out Datavail’s white paper: From Raw Data to Insightful Stories: Transform Analytics into Innovation.
The post Transforming Information into Insights: Analytical Applications appeared first on Datavail.
A PostgreSQL 13 Feature Deep-dive
PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database solution known for delivering powerful functionality and continually improving. The latest version, 13, continues to build on this foundation. Here are the newest additions and improvements to PostgreSQL.
Improved Indexing and Lookup Systems
If you’re working with largest databases, you’ll find that PostgreSQL 13 offers a much better experience with indexing and lookups. Some ways that this version has improved these features for big databases includes more efficient space usage, better performing indexes, and a stronger query planning functionality. You’ll also notice that queries that have aggregates or partitions involved are faster.
Newly Added Parallelized Vacuuming
The vacuuming feature in PostgreSQL, which reclaims storage space whenever you update and delete rows, has a much-requested upgrade. The latest version offers parallelized vacuuming for your database indexes. The performance for these operations is greatly improved due to this change.
You’re able to set the number of parallel workers on a workload-by-workload basis, so you can focus your resources on the indexes that need vacuumed the most. Another change to this feature is that you can now use autovacuum with data inserts.
Newly Added Incremental Sorting
Another popular user requested feature that made it into PostgreSQL 13 is incremental sorting. This function allows you to speed up your query sorting when you work with data that has been sorted earlier on. These query optimizations can make a significant impact on your database’s performance.
Another query-related improvement is the ability to use extended statistics for your query plans. This feature covers queries constructed with OR and IN/ANY.
Handle Your Duplicate Data in B-Tree Indexes
B-tree indexes in PostgreSQL received a boost through better handling of duplicate data. When you’re working with large amounts of duplication in your system, you can run into a range of performance issues. This feature decreases the space that your database indexes use and also provide a noticeable improvement in query speeds.
Expanded PostgreSQL Hash Aggregation Capabilities
PostgreSQL has an excellent hash aggregation function, but previous versions were limited in the query types that could use it. With PostgreSQL 13, you have an expanded number of grouping set and aggregate queries that benefit from this feature.
Large aggregate queries are freed from being fully in-memory with this change. Another performance boost is found in partitioned table queries. PostgreSQL 13 accomplishes this by directly joining the partitions.
Greater Visibility into PostgreSQL Activity
Databases have a lot of moving parts, and being able to effectively manage them requires as much visibility into system activity is possible. When you have greater access to this information, your organization can make better decisions about how to keep the database safe, ways to optimize performance, and methods for allocating the right number of resources.
PostgreSQL 13 delivers more monitoring capabilities. You can use EXPLAIN to look up WAL usage, keep an eye on streaming base backups, and learn more about the progress of ANALYZE operations. This version also adds a new backup feature called pg_verifybackup. As the name implies, you’re able to check the data integrity of your PostgreSQL backups.
Trusted Extensions Reduce Administrative Overhead
How much time do your database administrators spend on installing PostgreSQL extensions? They probably have a set list of extensions that they know and trust to be used on your business network, and installing it is a routine procedure that takes them away from more pressing matters.
In previous versions of PostgreSQL, only superusers could add new extensions. This limitation changed in 13, as you’re now able to designate trusted extensions. Your database superusers can set up the most commonly used extensions as trusted, allowing users to add those in on their own. A number of the built-in PostgreSQL extensions have this turned on by default, including hstore, pgcrypto, and tablefunc.
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PostgreSQL 13 has an exciting range of new features and performance improvements that make it an excellent choice for an upgrade. Learn more about moving to PostgreSQL 13 and the upgrade process in our white paper.
The post A PostgreSQL 13 Feature Deep-dive appeared first on Datavail.
