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Thursday, 18 September 2014

Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS)



Recently Oracle announced Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS) availability. This native cloud offering is one of the important announcement which is expected to help Oracle in accelerating growth and gain market share in growing market for cloud services.
 This blog is an attempt to share this announcement to wider audience.
BI Cloud Services
According to analyst, improve the use of data and analytics for improving business decisions and outcomes is one of the top most priorities for companies for coming years. More and more companies are looking forward for a cloud based analytic solution. The trend is there is increase in cloud data growth by almost 35% while traditional data center data growth is about 12%. In short the cloud services are here to stay and continue to grow. Oracle has number of offerings in cloud services space, the recent addition is BI Cloud Services.
Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS enables organizations of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively deploys BI with the simplicity of the cloud. BICS builds upon the robust and proven capabilities of the Oracle BI technology platform by incorporating numerous enhancements built for the cloud. Highlights and benefits include:
Rapid Deployments: BICS is a comprehensive offering based on the Oracle Database cloud service, simplifying the subscription and setup process. It offers a range of simple to sophisticated data upload options, intuitive web-based data modeling, best practice design guides, and interactive online help and tutorials to allow organizations to deploy robust BI applications in weeks, accelerating the time-to-value.
Easy Adoption with Mobile: With built-in support for Mobile delivery, BICS provides the fastest way for an organization to distribute data and analytics to mobile device users. Combined with familiar dashboard capabilities used by millions of Oracle BI users, BICS lowers the barrier to entry for all users to adopt Business Intelligence. 
Managed Operations: Built-in role-based security, one-click backup, elastic scaling based on user demand, scheduled maintenance and managed software updates deliver operational efficiency and simplicity of administration.
FAQ - BI Cloud Services

BICS is an Oracle first BI PaaS (Platform as Service) offering. It provides a base deployment of analytic software in which customer must configure data sources and build reports, dashboards etc themselves, much the same approach if they had a vanilla BIEE deployment.
I have copy pasted frequently asked questions from Oracle BI Cloud Services website
What is Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BI Cloud Service), and who is it for?

Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service is the industry’s first BI platform in the cloud that makes analytics available to everyone, from the workgroup to the enterprise. BI Cloud Service empowers users of any skill level, from any department, to easily combine data from diverse sources and quickly create rich, interactive analytic applications and reports.

How quickly can I start using BI Cloud Service?

You can start using BI Cloud Service right away by subscribing. Go to the Pricing tab and click the Buy Now button to purchase a BI Cloud Service subscription. You can also always contact your Oracle sales representative for more information and to start using BI Cloud Service.


Do I have to be a programmer to use BI Cloud Service?

No. BI Cloud Service is designed to be accessible everyone, regardless of analytical or technical background. It is easy enough that any user will be able to load and prep data, choose visuals, create analytics, and securely share results with co-workers.

Do I have to know the Oracle Database to use BI Cloud Service?

No. While the Oracle Database stores BI Cloud Service data, you don't need to know the database structure or any SQL or any other programming language to load data and create analytics.

Can I use BI Cloud Service to report on my on-premises data? How do I load data?

Yes. You can load data into BI Cloud Service from diverse sources, including other cloud solutions, as well as on-premises and third-party applications. There are multiple ways to load data, from importing files self-service to ongoing data integrations, including web-based file loading, direct queries, ETL integrations, a REST API, and more.

Where is the data hosted, and how do I know it's secure?

Data is stored in the Oracle Database Cloud Service which is hosted in the Oracle Public Cloud. The Oracle Database is well-known for its data security, and the Oracle Public Cloud meets the industry's highest level security standards (SSAE 16 Type II Certified).

Are BI Cloud Service analytics available on Mobile, and which devices?

Yes, analytics you create in BI Cloud Service can be immediately available on mobile devices, with no additional programming or configuration required. All iOS and Android devices are supported - simply download Oracle BI Mobile to your device, from either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

How can I share analytics created in BI Cloud Service?
Sharing in BI Cloud Service is both secure and straightforward. Combined roles and permissions give fine-grained control of data and functions, while sharing dashboards and reports is as simple as moving them to shared folders.

I hope you find this information useful.

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