Qlik has announced its Qlik Cloud offering that is comprised of multiple services. As a result of its recent DataMarket acquisition, the company is introducing Qlik DataMarket, a Data as a Service offering via Qlik Cloud, along with Qlik Sense Cloud for free sharing and Qlik Sense Charts for sharing visualisations on public sites.
As organisations move to a more data-driven culture, the importance of context becomes more significant. The on-demand availability of normalised data sources that users can quickly pull in for added insights are key to more informed decisions to drive competitive advantage.
With Qlik DataMarket users can access a comprehensive library of external data directly within Qlik Sense to allow users to augment and cross reference their internal data to gain context and drive deeper insights. No other vendor in the business intelligence market delivers this type of data library that encompasses both free and paid data sources available via cloud-based data services.
With Qlik DataMarket users can combine external data with their internal data with equal ease. They can search custom, syndicated and public data and compare normalised data from different sources to benchmark, verify, and then visualise that data to gain insights and understand important associations and relationships. For example, a sales manager could add population data to sales data to better understand market penetration or combine weather information to understand the effect of weather on retail sales.
With over 200 data providers and 100 000-plus data sets and more than 5-billion fact values, Qlik DataMarket is a one-stop data hub that empowers users to quickly answer critical business questions. Qlik DataMarket comes pre-configured with many of the most consulted global, ready-to-use data sources via a subscription model. Sources include business demographics, currencies, population, economic indicators, development indicators, and weather, all offered at various levels of granularity, some down to zip code.
Qlik Sense Cloud Offerings for Creation and Sharing of Apps
* Qlik Sense Cloud: Now generally available, allows users to share Qlik Sense applications with up to five individuals for free without the need for them to download Qlik Sense themselves. This further expands the audience being introduced to the discoveries that can be made in Qlik Sense. Additional features are planned for Qlik Sense Cloud, including the ability to create apps and storyboards using personal data and Qlik DataMarket data. This will enable users to experience Qlik Sense from creation to collaboration fully in the cloud from any device.
* Qlik Sense Charts: Enables non-technical users to embed interactive Qlik Sense visualisations on any public Web site or blog and share via social media for free. Readers are able to view an optimised chart regardless of device size due to Qlik’s responsive design and can filter data for further insight.
Business users are seeing immediate value from Qlik Sense Cloud sharing as Marc Osofsky, Senior Vice President & General Manager at Lionbridge explains, “My team in Eastern Europe needed an analytics tool that pulls data from multiple operational systems to enable us to better run a new business. We chose Qlik Sense over other offerings and have been impressed. We have since shared it with our IT organisation to review as part of a broader initiative, which is very helpful as we collaborate on our strategy.”
“Our cloud strategy encompasses more than just an infrastructure or Software as a Service play,” says Anthony Deighton, Qlik CTO and SVP of Products. “At Qlik we see an exciting opportunity for Cloud-based value-added services, like Qlik DataMarket Data as a Service offering, to optimise the visual analytics experience, even at the point of decision. Likewise, because people do not make decisions alone, sharing in the cloud will always be an important part of our collaboration strategy as well.”
Qlik Sense Cloud sharing is available immediately. Qlik DataMarket in Qlik Sense will be available in June 2015 and in QlikView in the second half of 2015. Qlik Sense Charts and the ability to create on Qlik Sense Cloud will be available in the second half of 2015.
Qlik Cloud is part of the Qlik portfolio of visual analytics offerings, which includes:
* Qlik Analytics Platform Specifically designed to make it easier for developers to build any data-driven app they can imagine with the underlying performance of Qlik. OEMs and developers can build on the powerful QIX in-memory Associative Indexing Engine, with full capabilities of mashup and extension APIs. With this platform they are not confined to the specific visualisation limitations of a tool vendor, but can use this as a toolkit and open platform for whatever they choose to build.
* Qlik Sense Desktop – free version of the Qlik next-generation data visualisation application that delivers an intuitive drag-and-drop user experience for data visualisation, exploration, and storytelling capabilities in a standalone, installed Windows client. Novice users can get started by simply dragging an Excel document right into the app or by tapping into multiple data sources used within the business. Qlik Sense Desktop is free for personal and business use, with no limits on the number of apps that can be created and no restrictions on file sharing.
* Qlik Sense Enterprise – Qlik Sense Enterprise spans across all business intelligence needs from reporting and self-service visual analysis to guided, embedded and custom analytics. Qlik Sense Enterprise is designed to serve audiences equally without compromise: business users gain the intuitive experience they need, developers gain boundless possibilities for what they can create and IT gains centralised control for management and governance.
* Qlik Cloud -Qlik continues to build out its Qlik Cloud offerings: Qlik Sense Cloud allows free sharing of applications with up to five people; collaboration is being enhanced with the ability to publically share interactive charts through Qlik Sense Charts; and Qlik DataMarket enables seamless access to on demand external data sources.