Oracle Analytics Cloud update unifies BI products, pricing

The planned Oracle Analytics Server rollout “is a statement to the many companies still running on-premises [Oracle BI systems] that there is a product for them,” said Doug Henschen, an analyst at Constellation Research. “Previously, there was a justified perception that the only way forward with Oracle was in the cloud.”

For cloud users and organizations considering cloud migrations, the new pricing for Oracle Analytics Cloud is “really aggressive,” particularly for the Enterprise edition, Henschen said. “It’s going to ensure that Oracle customers will give Oracle Analytics a first or second look before choosing competitive options.”

Outfront Media Inc., a billboard and digital display advertising company based in New York, upgraded to Oracle Analytics Cloud in January after using a predecessor product called the Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS) for four years. BICS was a good “foundational tool” for building dashboards that provide information on advertising operations to about 700 internal business users and customers, said Derek Hayden, Outfront’s vice president of data strategy and analytics. But for data virtualization, BICS required the use of desktop software from Oracle — a step that Hayden ruled out.

“I took a hardline cloud-only approach,” he said in an interview. “I saw tools like Tableau and Power BI [in other companies], where people did their own localized installs and data governance was really tough. I wasn’t comfortable we could control that, and we really wanted the dashboards to be embraced as a source of truth.”

Oracle Analytics Cloud, on the other hand, includes built-in data visualization tools as part of its integrated product set. “It’s much more compelling on visualization,” said Hayden, who also took part in Oracle’s webcast. For example, his team now can more easily create maps that visually highlight information and issues about advertising locations for transit systems.