Information Builders, the provider of business intelligence (BI) and analytics, information integrity, and integration solutions, has announced the availability of Skybox, a new cloud hosting service that allows companies to test and develop applications for BI projects, without spending time and resources creating an infrastructure for application test and development.
The service assists organisations to transform data into business value by using the WebFOCUS functionality and immediately begin developing and testing their BI applications, moving them to production much faster, without a large IT infrastructure investment.
“Skybox also accelerates time-to-market for BI projects. It will test existing runtime environments and applications, without the need to create and manage a new development infrastructure. Businesses can convert short-term testing to longer-term managed hosting or move the cloud-hosted environment on-premise,” says the sole representative of Information Builders in South Africa.
Skybox provides a pre-configured environment of the latest version of WebFOCUS, Information Builders’ BI platform. The solution’s cloud-hosted environment can help WebFOCUS users become familiar with new features and functionality and test applications without impacting critical business systems.
“The latest functionality in WebFOCUS is available in Skybox, meaning users can begin immediately developing and testing their BI applications, moving them to production much faster without a large IT infrastructure investment. All the standard features of WebFOCUS are accessible with Skybox.”
While managed hosting providers typically require a two-year agreement, Skybox permits commitments for a minimum of 60 days, enabling businesses to deploy BI projects more efficiently and cost-effectively.
In addition, the entire environment is managed by Information Builders, allowing users to focus solely on administering their WebFOCUS environment and developing or maintaining their BI applications – not on the IT infrastructure itself.
Additional benefits of Skybox include:
* Providing an agile development platform – companies accelerate time-to-market for BI projects by using Skybox for testing existing runtime environments and applications, without the need to create and manage a new development infrastructure. Businesses can convert short-term testing to longer-term managed hosting or move the cloud-hosted environment on premise.
Creating demonstrations in a self-contained environment – Skybox is designed to assist IT with demonstrating the latest functionality of WebFOCUS, including upgrades, to internal stakeholders without impacting on-going business operations.
Powerful configuration on Microsoft Windows Server – Skybox’s cloud runs on the 64-bit Standard Edition of Microsoft Windows Server, minimising the need for IT to acclimate to an unfamiliar operating system.