Cloud-based Business Intelligence Goes Mainstream

More than 50 percent of businesses currently use or plan to use cloud-based business intelligence, according to a survey by Dresner Advisory Services. Still several common hurdles have limited cloud-based BI's adoption in some companies.
The report, the latest in the firm’s Wisdom of Crowds series of research, examines usage trends and perceptions of cloud BI. The primary barrier to adoption of cloud-based BI remains security, and cloud BI as a concept retains “mid-tier importance” among the 775 survey respondents worldwide.
Other findings of the research: Sales and marketing attach the greatest importance and are the greatest users of cloud BI; very small and very large organizations attach the most importance to cloud BI; private cloud BI models remain the most preferred, followed by public; and “bread and butter” functionality including self-service, dashboards, and visualization top the list of required cloud BI features.
The perceived benefits of cloud BI continue to reflect conventional wisdom of cost savings, easier maintenance and greater access to BI, according to the study.
"We began analyzing the cloud BI market while it was still in its early days and have tracked with great interest the shifts in deployment and perception that have surfaced over the past four years,” Howard Dresner, founder and chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services, said in a statement. “Most telling, those organizations who perceive themselves as more successful with their business intelligence projects are those most likely to use cloud BI today.” 
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