What are the best visualization tools for cloud-based BI platforms?

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) excels as the top cloud-based BI tool, especially with SAP BW/HANA integration. It seamlessly connects to SAP systems, enabling real-time analysis via HANA's in-memory computing. SAC unifies analytics, planning, and predictive functions, fostering collaboration through robust sharing features. Its intuitive interface crafts compelling visual stories while offering advanced analytics like machine learning. Being cloud-based ensures scalability and accessibility, complementing today's agile businesses. SAC's success with BW/HANA showcases its immediate insights and informed decision-making prowess.

In years with Power BI, I navigated strengths and challenges summarized as below Pros 1. User-Friendly Interface: Power BI's intuitive design simplifies data analysis for users of varying expertise. 2. Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: Seamless integration streamlines collaboration within the Microsoft ecosystem. 3.Rich Visualization Options: Diverse tools in Power BI transform raw data into compelling narratives. Cons 1. Costs: Advanced features may accumulate costs, requiring a strategic balance, especially for larger enterprises. 2. Learning Curve: While user-friendly, mastering Power BI demands time and effort. 3. Customization Limitations: Power BI has design boundaries, posing challenges for highly customized visualizations.

Since its creation, Power BI has evolved and continues to evolve rapidly "in all directions." I say this because what originally seemed like just another BI service has developed into a complete ecosystem, where Power BI itself has become a part of this vast and fascinating infrastructure. Integrating the most advanced technologies and concepts, Power BI, integrated with the Microsoft Fabric platform, allows the entire Business Intelligence process, from its most basic infrastructure to the presentation of data and analyses done by AI and Machine Learning tools. And the best part of all this is that these and other features are accessible in a simple and practical way, allowing for a quick and effective learning curve.

Power BI has matured over the years to become a leading BI analytics and visualization platform. With its ability to access on-prem data sources via data gateway and various cloud data sources, Power BI can bring disparate data together. The general availability of Microsoft Fabric has merged a highly scalable big data platform with the visualization capabilities of PowerBI. Organizations that utilize PowerBI premium license can start to leverage the tight integration with Fabric since the existing PowerBI SKU's can be shared with Fabric platform.

Some features of data studio are definitely giving it an edge over other products. They include Ad hoc reporting, customizable branding, collaboration tools and real time analytics. In terms of ease, understanding and compilation of data, lot of resources, complexity and overhead is saved when working with data studio. It will continue to cement formidable position if it keeps up with the industry innovations.

It depends on which cloud application hosting platform you are using. Large scale organizations usually go with one of these three: Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Power BI being a Microsoft product, goes well with Azure cloud. For AWS, Amazon has its own visualization tool QuickSight. For GCP, Google Data Studio does the same job. Each one of three has its share of pros. Power BI is easy to use and has the option to import hundreds of custom visuals. QuickSight does not require any installation since it is browser-based. They have SPICE mode to import super large datasets (the capacity is higher than all other alternatives). Google Data Studio is free, so price wise the most affordable one.

For big corporates that have SAP S/4HANA as ERP, it is highly recommended to use SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) that allows to generate user friendly dashboards and custom reports for managers. That solution is easily integrated with different ERP systems.

Here's a list of a few other data visualizations tools: 1. Tellius 2. ThoughtSpot 3. SiSense 4. Sigma 5. Superset 6. Metabase

Adding to the list that folks have shared, for continuous and augmented analytics, recommend looking at solutions like: 1. Out of the Blue 2. SisuData These tools automatically generate visualizations and data stories that help you zoom into the impacted metrics and their underlying drivers. The current standard paradigm is if you build the dashboard(s), the users will show up. However, that seldom happens.

Another offering to consider is Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC). If you are in the Oracle Ecosystem then this makes even more sense. OAC can seamlessly connect to various cloud and on premise systems; both Oracle and non-Oracle. It includes a data warehouse that can be used to transform and store data. The product is hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

If you’re a startup (early stage) or a non-profit organisation, I would recommend to have a look at open-source solution: 1. Preset (free option) 2. Looker/Data studio if you’re in GCP (free option) 3. Metabase (free option) Those options are great for small teams looking for free option to start data visualization. I like the fact that Preset is cloud based without any dependencies on the cloud platforms (GCP,Azure,AWS). You can easily connect your favorite datasource, build data layer and dashboards. Looker free is a good option if you’re in GCP and looking for report automation. The report customization is oustanding and the configurator is simple to use. Metabase is an alternative which requires some manual setup.