Qlik Sense SaaS was announced a few years ago and since then it has built a strong customer base and newer regions are being announced. In this blog, we attempt to demystify the usual questions and help you decide whether to make the move.
For customers experiencing end-of-life for their on-premises hardware, Qlik SaaS is an attractive proposition due to the heavy infra investments, administrative hassles, and management required for client-managed instances.
For many customers who honestly believe that 100% OPEX is the way forward, Qlik SaaS is an option to consider. Unlike many SaaS Providers who provide consumption-based billing leading to variable and often unexpected billing, Qlik SaaS with capacity licensing provides a definite outflow helping companies to plan their finances better.
With Qlik announcing that new features and capabilities to become available first on Qlik SaaS, customers who have matured in their analytics journey or the ones who want to bring in more use cases, this becomes an exciting proposition.
For customers who are still undecided. we outlay the benefits and cautions in this blog which will help you make a better decision.
Benefits
One of the key considerations is capabilities that are available only in Qlik SaaS making it imperative for customers seeking the following:
Qlik AutoML
Qlik AutoML is the no-code automated machine learning (AutoML) platform that allows any business user to become a citizen data scientist and start using a machine learning model for immediate business benefits.
Customers can also use the output of the model is non-Qlik applications using the endpoint URL which is exposed by Qlik SaaS.
Advanced Qlik SaaS Mobile
Qlik Sense Mobile is a native mobile app for iOS and Android devices that allows users to view and interact with Qlik Sense dashboards and apps on the go. The Alerting comes built in the same app allowing users one single app for all needs.
Application Automation
Application Automation is a no-code visual interface that can help you build workflows and automate actions based on the data. It brings actions to the insights using the easy-to-setup workflow.
Chart Monitoring
Qlik Saas Makes it possible to pin the most important charts from any dashboard onto the home screen, enabling users to stay focused on the most important analysis. Users can also subscribe to those charts and get the chart in their email to stay notified.
Besides this, there are other considerations
Enterprise preference for Cloud
With Qlik SaaS, the responsibility for managing the underlying infrastructure, software updates, security patches, and backups is shifted to Qlik’s cloud experts. This reduces the IT team’s workload, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks. This is ideal for companies already having a policy of moving workloads to the cloud.
Scalability for additional Users
When there is a need to scale the users, Qlik SaaS allows you to easily scale your analytics infrastructure up or down based on your organization’s needs. This is particularly valuable for businesses with fluctuating workloads or those looking to expand their analytics capabilities without significant upfront investments in hardware and software and the time lag for hardware procurement. This is a boon for customers who face heavy loads, especially during month-end reporting.
Cost Savings
Qlik SaaS typically follows a subscription-based pricing model, which can help organizations control costs more effectively. It eliminates the need for capital expenditures on hardware and software, as well as ongoing maintenance expenses.
Automatic Updates
Qlik SaaS platforms are kept up to date with the latest features, bug fixes, and security patches. This removes major administrative overheads associated with on-premises instances.
Predictable Costs
With a subscription-based pricing model that is not dependent on consumption, you can better predict and manage your analytics costs over time, helping with budget planning.
QlikView Compatibility
For QlikView customers, Qlik SaaS allows the QlikView apps to run seamlessly. This gives exceptional flexibility for customers to move to Qlik Sense at their own pace.
Trusted Security
Qlik SaaS has various certifications such as ISO, SOC, HIPAA, TISAX which build in the needed trust among customers.
Cautions
Some cautions that customers should consider when moving to Qlik SaaS
- App Size: App size can substantially affect your cost for Qlik cloud and that should be estimated.
- NPrinting: For customers who use NPrinting with Excel format, the equivalent capability is currently not available but is on the roadmap
- Compliance and Region availability: Customers who have strict data policy should consider factors such as compliance
- Licensing Preference: As of the time of this writing, Qlik SaaS is more of a user-based license rather than a core-based license
If you are considering moving to Qlik SaaS, stay tuned to our next blog, we will reveal tips on “What we need to consider while evaluating Qlik SaaS.”
Summary
The move to Qlik SaaS comes with numerous benefits, especially for organizations looking to streamline their analytics processes, reduce IT overhead with a policy of cloud migration, and leverage the additional features offered by cloud-based Qlik solutions. Innovative technologies such as AutoML and App Automation open possibilities of new use cases that were not possible with client-managed Qlik Sense. Business users can get immediate benefits without the hassle of management which results in a substantial increase in the adoption of BI and data-driven culture in the organization!!
