Business intelligence in the cloud?

Abstract

Business Intelligence (BI) deals with integrated approaches to management support. In many cases, the integrated infrastructures that are subject to BI have become complex, costly, and inflexible. A possible remedy for these issues might arise on the horizon with "Cloud Computing" concepts that promise new options for a net based sourcing of hard- and software. Currently, there is still a dearth of concepts for defining, designing, and structuring a possible adaption of Cloud Computing to the domain of BI. This contribution combines results from the outsourcing and the BI literature and derives a framework for delineating "Cloud BI" approaches. This is the bases for the discussion of six possible scenarios - some of which within immediate reach today.