Azure Cloud Computing
& Business Intelligence
A business area where cloud migration offers amazing results is Business Intelligence (BI)
Cloud-based BI reporting is a good place to start a cloud migration
In combination with Power BI, it brings a wide range of automation possibilities
Integration of Azure cloud with on-premises infrastructure can bring very effective results quickly
In Short – Azure Cloud implementation
Azure Cloud Data Architecture – more information
These days we very often hear about cloud migration, cloud computing, cloud solution providers, etc. Sometimes we come across specific names such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or Amazon Web Services. Moreover, those terms and brands are being talked about in the context of other enigmatically sounding terms such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), or Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service).
It is tricky to find one simple and unambiguous answer explaining what the cloud is and what we can use it for in our company. In this article, we will try to provide that answer.
The term cloud is related both to a place and a way of operating within that place. By place we mean an infrastructure such as servers or data centres provided by, e.g. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or IBM to store our data. We utilize that space to gather, process, analyse, and execute accordingly to our needs. Shortly speaking, we can purchase, design, and scale solutions without the necessity of bringing technical, licensing, or servicing support.
Now let us have a look at the differences between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS:
SaaS
Software-as-a-Service is a result of programmers’ work, which is brought to users as an easy to navigate service or software, e.g. Netflix, Gmail, Office 365. These are the extreme examples, but SaaS is also a range of applications, services, or software that can be customized for the use of a particular business sector, company, or even one of its departments.
PaaS
Platform-as-a-Service is an environment for programmers where they can relatively easily build, host, and deploy business applications. One of the PaaS examples is Microsoft Azure.
IaaS
IInfrastructure-as-a-Service is a safe and scalable infrastructure where we do not need to worry about servers, infrastructure maintenance, or available space, etc.
Thanks to global cloud computing providers such as Microsoft and companies such as Antdata, that is a Microsoft Partner Network member and Cloud Solution Provider Reseller, it is possible to create unique solutions that are tailored to the clients’ needs whether it is an individual business client, an organization or one of its branches or departments.
An example of such a solution can be the creation and maintenance of a data warehouse, a data repository, a reporting system, or the digitalization of business processes, e.g., event registration system, document circulation system, etc.
Antdata focuses on the optimization of data gathering, processing, and reporting processes.
Some of the services that help us provide those solutions to our clients
Analytics
Databases
Compute Instances
Microsoft Azure data architecture
After getting to know the company’s business needs and its current and potential (if that’s the company’s requirement) data, AntData can propose, design, and implement a well-fitted data architecture. We thoroughly analyse how the data is gathered, organized, stored, processed and most of all how it is used, to be able to implement the best solution and as smoothly as possible.
Let us consider the following example – a client operates on many systems (e.g. sales, ERP) and on-premises databases and has many users with different levels of access rights to the data. Analyses and reports are created manually in spreadsheets, and saving or merging them is a time-consuming, complex, and error-prone process. Our goal is to build an automatic and reliable solution that will allow our client to quickly access the company’s critical data without risking unauthorized access or data leakage.
A good solution, in this case, could be the implementation of Azure Data Factory, where we can integrate many data sources (e.g. ERP, CRM, MES) into one cloud-based data repository that then can become the main source of information for Power BI reports (for more information on how Antdata can bring this solution to your company, click here). Data can come from local servers, web applications such as Power Apps (Antdata does that too, click here to read more), or simple Excel files.
The created reporting system connects to those data sources on schedule and transmits the data to Azure Synapse which acts as a data warehouse. In the data warehouse, the relationships between entities, e.g., provider, client, orders are created allowing to present data from different functional areas of business in one view. As a result, we have a structured data model that serves as a single source of truth for the BI reports.
Access permissions are managed through Azure Active Directory and are fully integrated with well-known and widely used Office 365.
Read more about our successful projects and see examples of our work.
Why cloud solutions?
The cloud guarantees flexibility, scalability, and cost reduction. We can increase the use of resources accordingly to the application’s requirements thus spending money proportionally to our needs. Through this approach, we do not need to bear high initial costs to purchase necessary on-premise equipment.
Cloud advantages
Why Azure?
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