This article has been contributed by Anna Koh, Chief Business Officer (Asia), Cyfirma.
The boom of cloud technology has changed how we as a business, governments, and consumers interact with digital services. It has come a long way from a novel concept to an integral part of our daily lives. This pervasive adoption of cloud services has brought unprecedented agility in terms of growth and introduced us to new challenges in terms of security. This clubbed with the rise of AI, it has compelled us to rethink our security strategies.
Cloud computing began as a means to provide scalable IT resources online, eliminating the need for traditional in-house infrastructure. In the beginning cloud services offered basic computing resources such as storage and processing power, but with time technology matured and its capabilities improved. Today, the cloud offers a broad of services including Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
These services allow organisations to leverage cloud resources for various purposes, such as data analytics, AI, software development and disaster recovery. The pervasive adoption of cloud technology is evident across various sectors as businesses of all sizes rely on cloud solutions for their cost savings to operations that cloud platforms offer. Governments use the cloud to enhance public services and manage vast amounts of data. And consumers interact with cloud-based applications for everything from social media, online banking to entertainment and personal productivity.
Cloud Attacks Industry Targets
Cloud technology is becoming increasingly integrated into our digital lives, making it a crucial part of daily life. This shift to cloud computing has created new attack risks and amplified the potential impact of cyber-attacks. Threat actors look for vulnerability such as:
Misconfiguration
Cloud services often come with complex settings, if not properly configured it can expose sensitive data or leave systems open to unauthorised access.
Centralised Storage of Vast Amounts of Sensitive Information
Threat actors use techniques such as phishing and malware to gain access to cloud accounts and exfiltrate data. The scale and accessibility of cloud environments make these breaches particularly damaging.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Cloud services rely on APIs for integration and communication. Any vulnerabilities in APIs can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorised access, manipulate data, or disrupt cloud services.
DDoS Attacks
Attackers overwhelm cloud resources with a flood of malicious traffic. The scale of cloud services makes them particularly susceptible to these attacks, which can cause significant disruptions and financial losses.
Threat actors exploit vulnerabilities in the supply chain to compromise cloud services, infecting systems with malware or gaining unauthorised access to sensitive data.
The integration of AI into cyber-attacks has introduced new dimensions of sophistication and efficiency like:-
Attackers use AI to create personalised phishing emails by analysing the target’s communication habits, tricking employees into revealing cloud credentials and allowing unauthorised access to sensitive data.
AI is used to develop adaptive malware that evades traditional security systems by altering its code or behaviour based on defences. A notable case is AI-driven polymorphic malware that continuously changes its appearance to avoid detection by static antivirus tools.
Threat actors use AI to optimise data exfiltration processes by analysing network traffic and identifying optimal times and methods for data exfiltration. AI-driven algorithms can automate and accelerate the data extraction without triggering traditional security alerts.
Sophisticated DDoS attacks use AI to adjust the volume and type of traffic based on defensive measures, making it harder for cloud providers to mitigate the attack. This adaptive approach was evident in high-profile DDoS attacks that overwhelmed cloud infrastructure.
Cybercriminals use AI to conduct scans and exploit vulnerabilities of cloud environments. AI tools can find and exploit unpatched vulnerabilities before security teams can address them.
To address the evolving threats posed by AI-driven cyber-attacks, cloud security must adapt and incorporate advanced strategies. Here are key areas where cloud technology and security practices need to evolve:
Integrating AI into cloud security tools improves threat detection and response. AI can analyse patterns and spot anomalies in real-time, providing more accurate and timely alerts for potential threats.
Adopting a Zero Trust approach, where trust is never assumed and access is granted based on strict verification. This means continuous monitoring and validating user access and behaviours to minimise the risk of unauthorised access.
Strengthening API security by implementing rigorous and regular vulnerability assessments and API-specific security measures to mitigate risks associated with API exploits.
Leveraging automation in threat response to quickly respond to detected threats thus reducing the time attackers have to exploit vulnerabilities.
Training Personnel Regularly Regular training and awareness programs can help prevent human errors that lead to security breaches.
Collaborating with industry peers to share threat intelligence that can enhance cloud security. Collective efforts to share insights on emerging threats and vulnerabilities can strengthen defences and improve overall resilience.
As cloud technology and AI-driven threats evolve, organisations need to adapt their security strategies. Enterprises can better protect their cloud environments by integrating AI tools, adopting modern security architectures, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to ensure resilience of their digital operations.
In the realm of modern decision-making, the significance of data cannot be overstated. The advent of Business Intelligence (BI) platforms has revolutionized this landscape, providing a means to transform raw data into actionable insights. These platforms streamline the process by facilitating data collection and visualization in a singular, consolidated space. Deloitte’s research underscores the potency of data-driven choices, revealing that companies embracing such decisions are 59% more inclined to act upon their analytics findings and an impressive 77% more likely to achieve their business objectives.
In the ever-evolving marketplace, a plethora of BI platforms saturates the scene, spanning the gamut from highly technical and intricate tools to intuitive and elegantly simple solutions. Navigating this spectrum necessitates a careful evaluation of your SaaS company’s unique needs, including your data ecosystem, sources of information, and authorized data consumers.
To guide you on this journey, here we have curated a selection of 10 highly regarded and diverse BI tools. Keep reading to gain deeper insights into these transformative instruments.
What are Business Intelligence tools?
Business Intelligence tools refer to applications that proficiently gather and transform unstructured data from diverse origins such as literature, periodicals, documents, and images. These tools subsequently employ queries to distill valuable information from the processed data. Additionally, they play a pivotal role in analyzing data, facilitating its integration into reports and statistical visualizations. The versatility of BI tools extends to encompass an array of data analysis functions, encompassing enterprise reporting, mobile BI, real-time BI, and Software as a Service BI. This amalgamation empowers the creation of interactive dashboards, informative scorecards, and statistical software tailored for immersive data visualizations.
Advantages of BI Tools:
Employees can manage and optimize their Key Performance Indicator(KPI) through various real-time data sources and reports.
Monitoring and insights over revenue, losses and employee productivity is another key aspect of BI tools. Be it tracking metrics, alerting pitfalls or KPI analysis, these tools have it all covered.
Insights on customer behavior, interactions and feedback, BI tools help identify loopholes and flaws in your services, which can be further customized in accordance to the customers convenience.
BI tools enhance efficiency by providing a singular and accurate data source and hence data management is optimized.
Inaccurate data might lead to unforeseen repercussions. BI tools provide clean and quality data and hence help in generating precise reports.
Popular Business Intelligence (BI) Tools:
Discover the transformative capabilities, benefits, and key features of SaaS Business Intelligence tools that are propelling businesses toward success in a data-centric era.
Zoho, formerly known as Zoho Reports, is a self-service business intelligence and analytics tool allowing users to analyze their business data and create reports and dashboards. With this platform, organizational teams of all sizes can produce reports quickly without IT help.
Moreover, the BI tool employs a simple-to-use assistant, Ask Zia, leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, and language processing technologies. Zia enables enterprises to integrate analytics into their strategy and get valuable insights via vital performance indicator widgets and reports. The tool has made it easier for business teams to create reports with its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Additionally, its cloud-based storage makes it easier for users to share data and reports efficiently.
Furthermore, Zoho Analytics is a great BI tool for several analytical operations, including gathering and combing data, crunching large datasets, and visualizing reports in the form of graphs, charts, summary views, or pivot tables.
Features of Zoho Analytics
Data Integration: This feature allows business teams to analyze their data from 250+ sources. They can connect their data from files, web URLs, databases hosted in-house or on the cloud, business applications, and more.
Data Preparation and Management: With Zoho Analytics, users can access a data preparation and management app named DataPrep, which allows for creating and managing data seamlessly.
Visual Analysis: Zoho Analytics offers a plethora of visualization tools, including charts, pivots, widgets, summaries, and tabular views, to create reports and gain insights.
Augmented Analytics: Users can leverage technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural processing and generation to augment their data analysis and get quick insights.
Zoho Analytics – Self Service Business Intelligence (BI) & Analytics Software
Pros
With Zoho Analytics, users can access a powerful formula engine to create any type of calculations needed to assist in creating required reports.
The BI tool is governed by stringent Security Practices to keep business data safe and secure.
Easy-to-navigate smart assistant ‘Ask Zia’ allow the tool to centralize data collection and develop a 360-degree view of a company.
Organizational teams can scale the Zoho Analytics tool as the business grows.
Cons
Integrating Zoho Analytics for white-label/embedded use cases can be complicated.
The subscription pricing is per user versus per group of 5-10 users.
The platform lacks effective customer support.
Completely manual input with no smart tools to file forms.
BI visualization and reporting for desktop, web or mobile
Microsoft Power BI Pro
Microsoft Power BI Pro is the full version of Microsoft Power BI, meaning it provides the complete ability to use Power BI to create dashboards and reports and view, share, and use reports unlimitedly. This business intelligence tool gives users the option and ability to share business data, reports, and dashboards with many other users.
The Power BI Pro is licensed for each user. For instance, an organization with 20 employees will need 20 licenses of the tool to access its full capabilities. Furthermore, it’s a subscription-based platform costing approximately $9.99 per user per month. The plus point is organizational teams can try the tool for free for 60 days before purchasing the subscription.
Features of Microsoft Power BI Pro
Data Connection: The platform can get data almost everywhere with source connections like Excel, SQL, Text, PDF, Azure, Cloud, CSV, and on-premises data.
Data-Driven Collaboration: Microsoft Power BI Pro enhances collaboration by using team commenting. The tool also shares rich data visualizations and distributes findings to internal and external organization members.
Power Query and Power Pivot: Users can access Power Query in Excel and Power Pivot to edit the data in Power BI Pro.
Custom Visualizations: Power BI Pro has various built-in visuals to help users create dashboards and reports.
Pros
Business teams can embed Power BI visuals into applications (PowerApps, Teams, SharePoint, etc.)
The platform allows teams to create APP Workspaces and peer-to-peer sharing.
Users can navigate integration with other Microsoft solutions like Azure Data Services.
Power BI Pro enables users to share datasets, reports, and dashboards with other users of the same tool.
Cons
The platform doesn’t allow users to share reports and dashboards with non-Power BI Pro users.
Power BI Pro has a maximum data capacity of 10 GB per user, much less than the licensed tool.
The business intelligence tool has a limited daily data refresh limit of eight times per day.
Pricing Plans
Plan
Price
Power BI Pro (Per User)
₹ 785.30/user/month
Power BI Premium (Per User)
₹ 1,570.60/user/month
Power BI Premium (Per capacity)
₹ 3,92,257.40/user/month
Looker
Website
cloud.google.com/looker
Rating
4.5 out of 5
Free Trial
Available
Platforms Supported
Web, Android, iPhone/iPad
Best For
Data Exploration, Collaborative Analytics, Business Intelligence
Looker
Looker is a powerful business intelligence platform that helps business teams develop and share insightful visualizations to make informed business decisions. The BI tool is part of the Google Cloud Platform. It offers a user-friendly workflow, customized visuals, collaborative dashboards, and efficient customer support. Looker is completely browser-based, eliminating the need for installing desktop software.
With Looker, users can easily build a customized data exploration platform that makes their data accessible meaningfully and intuitively for the entire company. The platform leverages Data Modelling Language (DML) and incorporates a predefined framework. Looker helps business teams connect with multiple data sources and analyze data efficiently. Regardless of where business data is stored, this BI platform can allow business teams to access the most up-to-date version of their organization’s data. It’s a one-stop solution to visualize, analyze, and manage data.
Features of Looker
Integrated End-to-End Multiple Cloud Platform: Users can perform data analysis and visualization across Server, Google Cloud, AWS, Azure, SQL, Bigquery, on-premises databases, and more.
Embedded Data: The business intelligence tool supports embedded analytics and creates customized data experiences.
Advanced Workflow Development: Looker has a sophisticated workflow system allowing users to create reports and send them on a scheduled timeframe.
In-Database Architecture: With its In-database Architecture, the platform enables users to skip that ELT layer by directly connecting to their raw data.
Pros
The BI tool offers performant and scalable analytics on a real-time basis.
Looker is a browser-based platform, eliminating the need for desktop software.
Looker facilitates dashboard collaboration, allowing users to develop and publish out-of-the-box git integrations simultaneously.
Cons
Looker costs more than its alternatives, like Microsoft Power BI.
Coding in LookML is unavoidable, making it difficult to use by report developers having minimal experience with SQL.
Compared to Tableau, the platform doesn’t facilitate elegant visuals.
Pricing Plan
Looker offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Tableau
Website
www.tableau.com
Rating
4.6 out of 5
Free Trial
Available
Platforms Supported
Web
Best For
Data Visualization, Business Intelligence, Interactive Dashboards
Tableau
Tableau is a business intelligence suited introduced in the market in 2003. It comprises various products, mainly online data processing, visualization, and presentation tools. With Tableau suite products, users can connect to the data source and then fetch, format, visualize, share, and view data. The business intelligence platform mainly focuses on data visualizations among all these data analysis activities. Moreover, when it comes to use groups, Tableau can be used by data analysts and business users. The platform suite is divided into self-service tools for data analysts and managed tools for business users.
The plus point is that the analytical interface of Tableau requires almost negligible coding knowledge for data querying and creation. In addition, business teams can use Tableau to share information across the company with the help of dedicated servers. This suite allows users to access a toolset to manage their server, data, and meta-data.
Features of Tableau
Informative Dashboards: The BI tool dashboards combine visual objects, text, images, and many other components to present a comprehensive view of the user’s data.
Support Several Data Sources: With Tableau, users can connect to and fetch data from numerous sources, including local files, big data, spreadsheets, relational and non-relational databases, data warehouses, and on-cloud data. In addition, the platform supports several data connections, including Google Sheets, MemSql, Presto, Google Analytics, Salesforce, and many others.
Easy Collaboration and Sharing: Users can communicate with each other and exchange data in real time by utilizing Tableau. Data can be shared in the form of sheets, visualizations, dashboards, etc.
Advanced Visualizations: The platform allows business teams to create visualizations in the form of bar charts, pie charts, Buller charts, histograms, Treemaps, Gantt charts, Motion charts, Boxplots, and many others.
Tableau Tutorial For Beginners
Pros
Tableau can support complex computations, data blending, and dashboarding to help users create beautiful visualizations that deliver valuable insights.
The business intelligence tool can seamlessly handle millions of rows of data.
Tableau Dashboard facilitates a great reporting feature that allows users to customize dashboards, particularly for certain devices like laptops or mobile phones.
Cons
Tableau doesn’t offer scheduling or notification of reports. Therefore, users need to update the data in the back-end manually.
The parameters of this BI tool are static and allow users to select only a single value using a parameter.
Since Tableau is mainly a data visualization tool, users can process basic data.
Pricing Plan
Tableau offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Business Intelligence, Data Visualization, Cloud Analytics
Domo
Domo is a cloud-based business intelligence tool for large and small enterprises. The platform helps organizations collect and transform raw data stored across one or multiple databases into focused reports, graphs, and dashboards. Simply put, it provides users with direct, simplified, and real-time access to business data enabling business executives to make well-informed decisions with minimal IT involvement. Moreover, Domo integrates with various data sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, social media, cloud-based or on-premise software solutions, etc.
With this software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, CEOs and managers can access dashboard-style data aggregators helping them track business operations quickly and painlessly. It started with a theme of connecting all the user’s data at the scale of thousands of connectors and trillions of rows of data. Furthermore, its simple drag-and-drop ELT process aid users in combining and transforming business data without requiring any coding knowledge.
Features of Domo
Reporting and Dashboards: The BI tool boasts 150+ chart types, 7,000+ custom map options, drag-and-drop ad hoc analysis, easily deployed dashboards, content creation, and shareable calculations.
Connect Data: With Domo, users can access over 1,000 pre-built cloud and on-premises connectors, custom connections via APIs, SDKs or Webhooks, multi-cloud, federated data, custom connectors, partitioned connectors, and more.
Data Transformation: Domo facilitates SQL dataflows (coded data flows), Magic ELT (drag-and-drop ELT flows), interactive dataset views, data science studio, interactive instance catalog, etc.
Security and Governance: In terms of security and governance, users can leverage data lineage, flexible security (from GGAC to content-based security with Domo PDP), UI and API-based user management options, trusted attributes, Domo stats, and more.
Pros
Domo is a mobile platform that allows executives to run their business via mobile phones, offering 24/7 data accessibility.
Users can integrate data from any source, including Google Analytics, email, cloud CRM, and more.
Business teams can directly connect social media data from multiple platforms to Domo to understand their online presence.
Domo provides easy access to information necessary for the executives to make well-informed business decisions, regardless of their expertise and knowledge.
Cons
Domo’s UI is not intuitive and simple enough, making it difficult for non-technical users to use the tool.
It’s expensive for small businesses.
It can be difficult for users to extract data from Domo.
Pricing Plan
Domo offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Sisense
Website
www.sisense.com
Rating
4.5 out of 5
Free Trial
Available
Platforms Supported
Web, Android, iPhone/iPad
Best For
BI & dashboard software for multiple, large data sets
Sisense
Sisense is an artificial intelligence-driven business intelligence (BI) software introduced in 2004. The tool is primarily used to simplify and analyze complex data, create visualizations, reports, and dashboards, and discover and share insights with enterprise decision-makers. Its easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface and interactive dashboard make it seamless for non-techies to prepare, analyze, and visualize complex datasets. Sisense infuses analytics into different streams of work business teams are involved in and creates a self-service experience to provide AI-based information to organizations.
The leading BI platform is ideal for companies with limited IT resources and experience with BIG data. Sisense includes data visualization, AI analytics, and data modeling. It facilitates multiple features like disaster recovery and attack surface monitoring, making it a scalable platform. With Sisense, managers can have a complete 360-degree view of the information across hardware, workstreams, and other infrastructure, enabling quick and informed decision-making.
Features of Sisense
Unlimited Dashboards: Sisense allows its users to create unlimited dashboards that can be easily shared with other users via email.
Single-Sign-On Authentication: The BI platform uses Single-Sign-On authentication, reducing password fatigue and increasing user productivity.
Tracking KPIs: With Sisense Pulse, users can keep track of the most critical KEY performance Indicators (KPIs) across multiple dashboards and build alerts.
Efficient Architecture and Big Data Analysis: The tool’s architecture efficiently uses the CPU, RAM, and disk space, allowing business teams to run Bid Data analysis on economical hardware.
Pros
Sisense is a one-stop BI solution, enabling users to do multiple tasks, from data modeling to complex calculations.
The BI tool offers built-in connectors and smooth integrations with various third-party applications, including Excel, Google Adwords, Salesforce, Zendesk, and others.
Sisense is a flexible platform as it offers a cloud-based and on-premise option.
Sisense uses a columnar database approach, making it easier for the tool’s system to pull big queries.
Cons
The BI tool is too ‘heavy’ in terms of the server’s power and the amount of space and resources the application takes.
Sisense’s dashboards only interact on the web.
Users can’t share a report with users outside of the Sisense system.
Pricing Plan
Sisense offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Enterprise Analytics, Advanced Reporting, Big Data Integration
Oracle Business Intelligence
Oracle Business Intelligence, also popularly known as Oracle BI, is a unique cloud-based suite that helps small and large enterprises to uncover new insights and make quick, informed business decisions. The platform offers agile visual, predictive analytics, and self-service discovery combined with best-in-class enterprise analytics to facilitate decision-making.
With Oracle Business Intelligence, business teams can access instant mobile and highly interactive dashboards, just-in-time alerts, powerful operational reporting, strategy management, content and metadata search, Big Data sources, streamlined systems management, and sophisticated in-memory computing.
The tools offered by the BI platform allow companies to communicate strategic business goals with their departments and track progress with scorecards. Moreover, users can use the solution to access existing data from the system and create financial, production, and interactive reports via key metrics. Oracle Business Intelligence is a comprehensive solution that can help organizations reduce the total cost of ownership and boost the return on investment.
Features of Oracle Business Intelligence
Dashboards: With Oracle Business Intelligence, users can create, view, and interact with personalized dashboards based on their predefined role. Business teams can explore data freely alongside a guided navigation path leading enterprises to new insights.
Report Type: The BI platform can help users generate various reports, including interactive reports, ad-hoc analyses, or custom reports, and select from pre-built reports.
Big Data: The in-memory processing power of Oracle BI allows users to incorporate bid data sets without integrating another solution. The platform can draw data from several sources, such as Google Analytics, Hadoop, HIVE, etc.
Augmented Analytics: The tool leverages machine learning and AI to enhance the user’s experience by streamlining the analytics process.
Pros
The Oracle BI platform lets users access a wide selection of interactive dashboards, graphs, charts, and other visualization tools.
The solution allows users to analyze enormous datasets efficiently without technical support.
Business teams can set predefined alerts for real-time updates when the system is triggered or scheduled.
Cons
Users report constant issues and bugs to the Oracle Business Intelligence platform.
The platform lacks visual appeal.
Many users found the platform’s architecture farraginous, with poor customer support.
Pricing Plan
Oracle Business Intelligence offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Enterprise Analytics, Mobile Business Intelligence, Data Discover
MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy is an enterprise business intelligence (BI) platform with multiple features to help businesses make data-driven decisions and optimize processes. Its product suite includes Embedded Intelligence, HyperIntelligence, Consulting, Cloud, Education, and BI and Analytics tools. Its user-friendly and intuitive tools and capabilities include interactive dashboards, ad hoc queries, scorecards, formatted reports, automated report distribution, and alerts. All these tools let end users and BI professionals perform multiple tasks like data discovery, wrangling, visualization, and big data analytics.
Users can deploy MicroStrategy’s architecture on premises with Windows or Linux servers or as a Microsoft Azure or AWS cloud service. Moreover, its client interfaces allow users to access the platform via the web, Windows, Mac, or mobile devices. Users can also access a software developer kit (SDK) when utilizing MicroStrategy to customize and integrate an application with other applications. Additionally, the platform contains APIs and gateways allowing users to integrate MicroStrategy functionalities with third-party analytics tools.
Features of MicroStrategy
Data Discovery: The software can connect to and interact with various types of data sources and gather and jumble data from numerous sources to generate insightful reports.
Data Wrangling: This feature allows users to transform business data into useful information and modify it according to their needs.
Data Mining and Predictive Analysis: MicroStrategy enable users to incorporate third-party data mining and modeling tools and use them to build and design predictive and easily accessible reports.
Analytical Functions: The BI platform has a huge library of around 300 functions, like data mining, mathematics, financial, OLAP, etc., that help build strongly interactive and information reports and conduct statistical analysis.
Pros
MicroStrategy has a user-friendly interface, making it easier for users to access and analyze data.
MicroStrategy is a highly customizable BI platform that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of organizational departments and teams.
The platform is designed to be scalable, enabling small businesses and large enterprises to use it seamlessly.
Cons
The BI tool can be expensive, particularly for large companies requiring multiple licenses and support.
Although MicroStrategy has a user-friendly interface, some users find it complex and difficult to use.
Pricing Plan
MicroStrategy offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Yellowfin BI
Website
www.yellowfinbi.com
Rating
4.6 out of 5
Free Trial
Available
Platforms Supported
Web, Android, iPhone/iPad
Best For
Enterprise Analytics, Mobile Business Intelligence, Data Discovery
Yellowfin BI
Yellowfin Business Intelligence, also called Yellowfin BI, is an integrated data analytics platform that renders companies with innovative business intelligence tools, including dashboards, reporting, data transformation, and analytical applications. It’s a single integrated solution developed for organizations across varying industries and scaling sizes. Moreover, users can customize the platform to suit businesses in accounting, agriculture, advertising, marketing, insurance, manufacturing, food, technology, and many other fields.
From insightful dashboards, scorecards, and predictive analytics, to online analytical processing, report generation, and performance management, the business team can access all these key functionalities to make informed business decisions. Moreover, the Yellowfin BI platform facilitates collaboration and storytelling to help businesses reduce the complexity of data analytics. Business teams can better comprehend and analyze data using modern, action-based dashboards. Furthermore, the BI tool is browser agnostic, making it accessible from desktops and mobile devices.
Features of Yellowfin BI
Action-based Dashboards: Users can take their dashboards to the next level with embedded operational workflows via no code or low code development environment.
Automated Business Monitoring: Business teams can discover changes and outliers in their data as they occur through threshold-based alerts or automated AI-driven signals.
Data Stories: Yellowfin BI can help reduce the time it takes to tell insightful data stories with its rich data visualizations.
Management Reports: The BI platform allows users to generate professional data-driven management reports and presentations.
Pros
The platform allows real-time, trend, and predictive analysis, helping users know the market and make good decisions.
Yellowfin BI facilitates mobile access, allowing the business team to monitor and collect data at any time and place.
The powerful tool enables data visualization in an easy-to-understand format.
Cons
Data extraction can be a bit slow with Yellowfin BI.
Integrating the platform with third-party tools can be quite cumbersome.
Many users find generating some reports difficult, as it sometimes lags and hangs.
Pricing Plan
Yellowfin BI offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Data Integration, Business Analytics, Big Data Processing
Pentaho
Pentaho is a commercial open-source business intelligence (BI) tool that helps organizations make data-driven decisions. The platform provides access to data integration, information dashboards, OLAP services, reporting, data mining, predictive analytics, and extract, transform, load (ETL) capabilities. Its data integration functionality allows users to find, manage, and combine data from various sources, such as native support for analytic databases, NoSQL, and Hadoop. Moreover, now that Pentaho is data agnostic, it is suitable for embedding or white labeling visual analytics as a part of third-party SaaS/software applications. Users can rebrand and customize the application based on open standards and architecture.
Pentaho offers predictive analytics that further facilitates machine learning algorithms, tools to process data, and the capability to import third-party models with PMML. In addition, users can translate big data into sights within this singular platform. The BI tool allows users to access a complete spectrum of data from several sources via its adaptive big data layer, taking the data source into account. Built on open architecture, the software can be integrated with multiple systems.
Features of Pentaho
Reporting: Pentaho Bi reporting tools help generate reports on-demand and according to the fixed schedule set by the user.
Dashboard: The dashboard serves as the front face of the platform that offers well-reported content, analysis, and layout.
Data Mining: With the data mining feature, users can interact with the data at the graphical and program level for further analysis.
Data Integration: The data integration tool possesses various resources in terms of transformation libraries and mapping objects that allow business teams to integrate data across all levels. Moreover, the platform’s data integration templates are reusable.
Pentaho Tutorial for Beginners
Pros
Pentaho is a highly intuitive and scalable tool.
It uses a user-friendly GUI and offers 24/7 technical support.
The BI platform is the one-stop solution for ELT, reporting, and analysis.
Cons
The components of Pentaho can be present in a segregated mode.
The BI system has a fragile unified interface.
Compared to other BI tools, Pentaho technology evolves much slower.
Pricing Plan
Pentaho offers custom pricing plans. Please visit official website to contact sales team.
Conclusion
In the realm of modern business, SaaS Business Intelligence (BI) tools have emerged as vital assets, seamlessly combining cloud technology and advanced analytics. These tools democratize data insights, enabling real-time access and collaborative decision-making across devices. The diverse array of tools available reflects the unique needs of businesses, propelling them into an era of data-driven strategies. As technology advances, embracing SaaS BI tools becomes essential for maintaining a competitive edge. With data as a compass, businesses chart a course to success that’s both informed and achievable.
FAQs
What are SaaS Business Intelligence (BI) tools?
SaaS BI tools are cloud-based applications that offer advanced analytics and data visualization capabilities to help businesses transform raw data into actionable insights. They enable users to access and analyze data in real time, facilitating informed decision-making.
How do SaaS BI tools differ from traditional BI solutions?
SaaS BI tools are hosted in the cloud and accessed through web browsers, eliminating the need for complex on-premise installations. Traditional BI solutions often require significant infrastructure investments and maintenance.
What advantages do SaaS BI tools offer?
SaaS BI tools offer several benefits, including lower upfront costs, faster deployment, scalability, and accessibility from various devices and locations. They also often include regular updates and improved collaboration features.
What features should I look for in a SaaS BI tool?
Key features to consider include data visualization capabilities, user-friendly interfaces, integration with various data sources, scalability, security measures, and the ability to create customizable dashboards and reports.
Can SaaS BI tools handle large volumes of data?
Yes, many SaaS BI tools are designed to handle vast amounts of data.
Are SaaS BI tools secure?
Yes, reputable SaaS BI providers implement robust security measures, including encryption, access controls, and compliance certifications, to safeguard sensitive business data.
How do I choose the right SaaS BI tool for my organization?
To choose the right tool, consider your organization’s specific needs, such as data sources, user requirements, budget constraints, and scalability. Conduct thorough research, read reviews, and consider trial periods to determine which tool aligns best with your objectives.
As innovation quickly propels itself, so does the advanced work area. Numerous medium- and large-sized organizations have embraced cloud administrations to store and access their essential information to stay aware of the pattern. This move smooths out activities and guarantees the security and openness of significant data.
Distributed computing is an incredible asset that empowers organizations around the world. Its assorted abilities empower entrepreneurs to use the furthest down-the-line innovation to improve their advanced administrations and virtual workplaces. This mechanical headway has altogether worked on the adaptability and versatility of organizations, permitting them to work all the more effectively. In addition, distributed computing has made everything fair, empowering medium-sized associations to compete with their bigger partners. Draw in Oversaw IT Administration’s Charlotte specialists to tackle the force of the cloud in your business. If you need more information, please visit the distribution channel.
How could medium and large organizations use the force of the cloud? How about we dive into the manners in which it enables them?
Ways Businesses Can Harness the Power of the Cloud
A coordinated effort is vital to the progress of private companies. However, tracking down a reasonable and solid stage to access, offer, and work at the same time on different reports, records, and applications can be challenging.
This is where a solid web-based, coordinated effort instrument becomes essential. With the capacity to team up whenever, from any place, and on any gadget, organizations can speed up their efficiency and bridle the abilities of their talented labor force. By pooling their endeavors and cooperating consistently, organizations can accomplish their objectives quicker and more proficiently.
The cloud is a dependable computerized extra room for organizations, permitting them to make, access, and store different records and work together with their universally scattered colleagues progressively. It cultivates a cooperative work culture rising above geological and fleeting hindrances, taking into consideration consistent tasks across the board and expanded effectiveness. To further develop cooperation in your cloud innovation organizations, contact our IT Backing Salisbury specialists.
Access From Anywhere
One of the vital advantages of cloud innovation for organizations is the capacity to access information and applications from any place, whenever. This can be a distinct advantage for organizations with far-off representatives or different areas, permitting consistent joint effort and correspondence between colleagues.
Cloud innovation can likewise decrease equipment expenses and increase adaptability, as organizations never again need to depend on actual servers to store information and run applications. With the force of the cloud readily available, organizations can smooth out their activities and shine a spotlight on what makes a difference: developing their business.
Backup Data in the Cloud
Information misfortune because of hard drive disappointment can be a baffling and tedious experience, particularly on the off chance that significant data is lost.
Notwithstanding, a security breach can turn a situation into a global emergency with just one assault. Depending exclusively on your PC’s safety efforts is an unsafe game, as cybercriminals are continually looking for weaknesses to take advantage of.
Distributed computing has become well known for organizations hoping to keep their organizations and information secure.
Using cloud reinforcement administrations is a successful method for shielding your organization from information misfortune and other possible dangers. With cloud reinforcement benefits, your information is put away safely offsite and can be effectively gotten to and re-established during a fiasco or blackout.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Amdocs.
With a technologically advanced and competitive corporate sector, almost every company looks forward to transforming its business communication and IT structure. Cloud-migrated, digitized, and automated companies leveraging innovative technologies tend to have better operational efficiency and productivity.
Enterprises can find several platforms to access innovative solutions, including 5G, communication tools, digitization, cloud migration, and automation solutions. One such platform is Amdocs. It is a software and services provider that enables customers’ digital and network transformation via innovative solutions, expertise, and intelligent operations.
Let’s dig in for more details about Amdocs, from its founders, mission, and startup story to investments, products, competitors, and more.
Amdocs is a multinational corporation specializing in innovative software and services for media, communication, financial service providers, and digital enterprises. The company unlocks customers’ innovative potential and empowers them to transform their boldest ideas into reality by accelerating their migration to the cloud, digitalizing and automating their operations, differentiating in the 5G era, and providing end users with the next-generation communication and media experiences.
Amdocs has a global presence with 53 offices located in the United States, Israel, India, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and other areas. It serves billions of consumers worldwide through its relationships with 600+ content creators and 350+ communications & media providers across 85+ countries.
Amdocs – Founders and Team
Avinoam Naor, Boaz Dotan, and Morris Kahn are the founders of Amdocs.
Avinoam Naor
Avinoam Naor earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Technion. He was one of the Amdocs founders and was its President and CEO from 1995 to 2002.
Avinoam Naor – Co-founder, Amdocs
Boaz Dotan
Boaz Dotan graduated from Tel Aviv University. He is the co-founder of Amdocs, and in 1982, he was appointed the company’s first President and CEO. Currently, he is a board member at Retalix Ltd and a partner at AfterDox.
Boaz Dotan – Co-founder, Amdocs
Morris Kahn
Morris Kahn is an Israeli entrepreneur. In addition to Amdocs, he founded Golden Pages Israel, the Aurec Group, Coral World, and a few more companies.
Morris Kahn – Co-founder, Amdocs
Shuky Sheffer is the CEO, and Tamar Rapaport-Dagin is the CFO & COO of Amdocs. Presently, it works with a global team of over 31,000 employees.
Amdocs – Startup Story
In 1982, Amdocs was founded in Israel as an offshoot of Golden Pages- the phone directory company owned by the Aurec Group, which Morris Kahn headed. Boaz Dotan was appointed as the company’s first President and CEO. Morris, along with others at Golden Pages, developed a billing software program for phone directory companies. He and Boaz incorporated Aurec Information & Directory Systems for marketing the product.
50 percent ownership of Aurec Information & Directory Systems was acquired by Southwestern Bell Corporation in 1985, and its name was changed to Amdocs. Within two years, the Aurec Group sold Amdocs’ remaining holdings for approximately $1 billion.
Amdocs diversify for the first time between 1990 and 1995 by expanding first into the wireline telephony arena and then the mobile space. In June 1988, it went public on the New York Stock Exchange and moved to the NASDAQ Global Select Market in 2014.
In 1999, Amdocs entered the managed services space and entered many different markets by acquiring multiple companies.
Amdocs – Mission and Vision
Amdocs aims to enrich lives and progress society with creativity and technology.
Amdocs – Business Model
5G, Automation, B2B Portfolio, Cloud, Digital, Media, and Financial Services form Amdocs’s core business, which has been expanded through several acquisitions and partnerships. The company’s technology, design-led approach, and expertise help service providers accelerate their journey to the cloud, deploy and manage existing and next-generation networks, improve their entertainment offerings, and service customers across multiple channels.
Moreover, Amdocs sometimes engages third-party vendors and system integrators to provide complimentary products and services, including hardware and software.
Amdocs provides multiple products and services, and these are:
Amdocs Customer Experience Suite
Amdocs Digital Brands Suite
Catalog Management
Amdocs Subscription Marketplace
Commerce & Care
IoT
Monetization
Amdocs Network
Network & Service Automation
Network Deployment & Optimization
OTT & Digital Subscription
Amdocs Microservices Management Platform
Amdocs Consulting Services
Amdocs Low-Code Experience Platform
AmdocsContent Mangement Services
Amdocs Operations Services
Amdocs Delivery Services
Amdocs Mobile Network Services
Amdocs Systems Integration Services
Amdocs Quality Engineering Services
Amdocs – Challenged Faced
In early 2000, a counterintelligence investigation was conducted by federal agencies to determine whether Israel was using Amdocs to eavesdrop on U.S. government communications. But no evidence was found in the inquiry.
Moreover, as per Spy Cables, in 2009, the South African State Security Agency suspected Amdocs of being used by Mossad to spy on South African citizens by tapping their mobile phones to collect information.
Amdocs – Funding and Investments
Amdocs has undertaken 1 funding round, i.e., Post-IP Equity Round, on January 1, 2023. Moreover, the company has made the following 10 investments:
Amdocs created a subsidiary named ‘Vector Creations Limited’ in 2016.
You’re touched by Amdocs when…
Amdocs – Patents and Trademarks
Amdocs’ intellectual property includes 3 registered patents, primarily categorized into the ‘Computing; Calculating’ class.
Amdocs – Growth
Amdocs’ estimated annual revenue in 2022 is $4.3 billion ($101,736 per employee). In January 2022, its valuation stood at $9.4 billion. Moreover, the monthly website visit grew by -4.8%, with 548,432 visits.
Amdocs – Partners
Amdocs has 175 partners, of which 159 are technology partners, and 16 are channel partners. Some of them are:
Hewlett Packard
Amazon Web Service
Google Cloud
Microsoft Azure
Creatio
Amdocs eSIM
CommBox
Perx
PayFast
TechSee
Continual
vHive
NCTC
Zixi
Amdocs – Awards and Achievements
Amdocs received many prestigious awards:
TWO Coveted Leading Lights 2021 awards for Outstanding Digital Enablement Vendor and Innovative Hybrid Networking Strategy.
Amdocs + Airtel won TM Forum’s Excellence Award in the ‘Customer Experience and Trust’ category.
The Carbon Disclosure Project recognized Amdocs as a sustainable leader.
Amdocs Media’s MarketONE platform won Media Excellent Award in the ‘Payment/Crypto/Commerce category.’
Amdocs is a multinational corporation specializing in innovative software and services for media, communication, financial service providers, and digital enterprises.
Who are the founders of Amdocs?
Avinoam Naor, Boaz Dotan, and Morris Kahn founded Amdocs in 1982.
The foundation of a successful business thrives upon a good business-customer relationship. A company providing poor customer support doesn’t run without a limp for long. In this hyper-competitive modern world, reaching customers become vital for a company’s growth. Not only does a company need to provide a good medium that could channel support, but that medium must be fast and smooth too. This is where cloud-based phone systems come to the rescue. Not only is this cost-effective, but it also has a greater reach too. But with so many cloud-based phone system companies in the market, choosing the right one could feel a bit scary. We understand your concern.
In this article, we’ll reveal to you 10 excellent cloud phone systems to consider in 2023.
All businesses looking for a Unified Communication (UC) system
A Screenshot from the RingCentral Dashboard
Founded in the year 1999, RingCentral has been providing cloud-based communication services since then. Although it offers a wide range of services, its forte has always hovered around cloud-based business communication. They provide four plans in the MVP sector and their pricing is based on a per-user basis. Here are the pros and cons to look for:
Pros:
Provides call recording for later documentation and analysis
High-quality noise-free calls; they claim their system to be available 99.99% of the time
Provides free trial to build trust
Cons:
Billing terms can see changes even after the contract
It might be a little expensive
Sluggish customer service
RingCentral: Simpler Communications
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing details of RingCentral. Note that taking plans for more users will come with a discount.
Plan
Pricing
Essentials
$19.99 per user/month
Standard
$27.99 per user/month
Premium
$34.99 per user/month
Ultimate
$49.99 per user/month
Grasshopper
Website
Grasshopper.com
Rating
4.1 out of 5
Best For
Small to medium businesses that need to respond in case the call is not answered
A screenshot from the Grasshopper Dashboard
Considering the rise of the internet and the needs of the modern world, the duo of David and Siamak founded Grasshopper, aVOIP service provider, back in 2003. So far, it has served over 400,000 happy customers and is on its way to serving a million more. Here are the pros and cons to look for if you want to choose Grasshopper as your cloud-based communication provider:
Pros:
Automatic responses to customers if the line is not picked
Noise-free calls
Can handle simultaneous calls
Cons:
Is not so cheap
You might face troubles while canceling accounts
Has been questioned for selling client data
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing details of Grasshopper. You can save up to $75 on a yearly plan.
Plan
Pricing
Solo
$28 per month (1 line)
Partner
$46 per month (3 lines)
Small Business
$80 per month (5 lines)
Nextiva
Website
Nextiva.com
Rating
4.4 out of 5
Best For
For businesses that are growing and need to scale themselves
A screenshot from the Nextiva Dashboard
Nextiva is another VOIP service-providing company that was founded in the year 2006. Within six years it had gathered a workforce of 120 people working with. It provides excellent internet communication servicesthat help businesses grow at a tremendous pace. It recently recorded a revenue of over 200 million USD. Here are the pros and cons to consider before choosing Nextiva as your communication company:
Pros:
Provides a screen-sharing option, which has become necessary considering the present work culture
Excellent customer support
Has a good record in enhancing communication within the remote work culture
Is cheaper than RingCentral
Cons:
Customers have sometimes reported noise during the calls
The flow of their service is a bit unreliable
Pricing:
Below mentioned pricing is for a user base of 1-4 and is billed monthly. Taking yearly plans for a higher number of users yield an extra discount.
Plan
Pricing
Essential
$30.95 per user/month
Professional
$35.95 per user/month
Enterprise
$45.95 per user/month
Vonage
Website
Vonage.com
Rating
4.3 out of 5
Best For
Businesses that have industry-specific communication needs
A screenshot from the Nextiva Dashboard
Because different businesses have different structures, they have different communication needs too. For example, a healthcare company cannot run on the communication flow that serves the finance sector. This is where Vonage comes in. It offers specially crafted unified communication that tries to serve a business to its satisfaction and growth. Here are the pros and cons to consider before you choose Vonage:
Pros:
Industry-specific plans and solutions
Offers mobile app
Flexible pricing
Good track record with an experience of over 25 years
Clear call quality
Cons:
Issues with texts and voicemails reported
Questionable customer service
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing offered by Vonage.
Plan
Pricing
Mobile
$19.99 per user/month
Premium
$29.99 per user/month
Advanced
$39.99 per user/month
8×8
Website
8×8.com
Rating
4.1 out of 5
Best For
Businesses that deal with customers through many mediums like chat, video, call, etc.
A screenshot from the 8×8 Dashboard
With an over 2 million user base, 8×8 has been hailed as one of the best companies in the field of VOIP. It was also awarded the Best Value Business Phone of 2021 by US News and World Report. What more? It offers services in different field that enhances business communication. Here are things to consider before buying plans from 8×8:
Pros:
The pricing is cheaper than its competitors
Provided call monitoring for training purposes
International calling can be done
Has a good track record with users like Acer, FredLoya, Live Oak Bank, etc.
Cons:
Their customer services have been questioned by many
You might face problems canceling their plans
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing offered by 8×8.
Plan
Pricing
Express
$15 per user/month
X2
$24 per user/month
X4
$44 per user/month
MagicJack
Website
Magicjack.com
Rating
3.3 out of 5
Best For
Small businesses and individuals
A screenshot from the MagicJack Dashboard
Founded in the year 2007, this company has been a name among small businesses looking for a cheaper communication environment. It offers a mobile app and a small USB device. As a business just starting up MagicJack can help you handle communication at a cheaper price. Here are the pros and cons to look for:
Pros:
Simple plan that is easy to understand
Conference calling, call blocking, and call holding
Call hold music
Voicemail and call forwarding are also provided
Cons:
Poor customer support has been an issue
Call dropping has been reported by its users
No unlimited international calling
Pricing:
MagicJack is one of the cheapest cloud phone systems. Have a look at its pricing.
Plan
Pricing
1 Year
$43
2 Year
$79
3 Year
$109
Dialpad
Website
Dialpad.com
Rating
4.4 out of 5
Best For
Small to medium businesses
A screenshot from the Dialpad Dashboard
With call and SMS support in over 50 countries, Dialpad has been rising in the cloud phone system sector. Founded in the year 2011, this company offers industry-specific solutions to serve different communication demands. So far, it has served over 25,000 customers. Here are the pros and cons to look for:
Pros:
Unlimited international calling to over 50 supported countries
Supports a remote culture
Affordable and beneficial for startups and small-scale businesses
Cons:
Poor call quality has been reported
Call drops
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing details of Dialpad.
Plan
Pricing
Standard
$21.50 user/month
Pro
$27 user/month
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Mitel MiCloud Connect
Website
Mitel.com
Rating
3.8 out of 5
Best For
All businesses
A screenshot from the Mitel MiCloud Connect Dashboard
MiTel, a company owned by Searchlight Capitals, provides companies with its cloud business communication services. Back in the years, it had sold a few of its technologies to RingCentral, which is another VOIP service-providing company. Apart from services, it also offers communication devices that help businesses reach their maximum potential. Here are the pros and cons to look for:
Pros:
Easy-to-use interface that helps non-technical users
No setup fee
Great call and chat quality
Helps set up an excellent remote work culture
Cons:
Doesn’t provide a free trial
Consulting charges are there
Poor UI on iPhones
Pricing:
Contact sales support for business-specific quotations.
Cisco Webex Calling
Website
Cisco.com
Rating
4.4 out of 5
Best For
All businesses
A screenshot from the Cisco Webex Calling Dashboard
Cisco is one of the most experienced companies in the field of cloud communications. Founded in the year 1995, Cisco offers business solutions for all types of communications likevideo conferencing, voice calling, screen share, webinars, etc. If you are a large-scale business looking to set up a unified cloud communication, here are the pros and cons to look before:
Pros:
Easy to use
Free trial available
Screen-sharing and other cloud communication features
Online meeting and collaboration environment setup
Provides quality communication
Cons:
Poor quality file transfer
Technical user interface
Audio jitters have been reported
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing details of Cisco Webex Calling.
Plan
Pricing
Basic
Free
Starter
$14.50/license/month
Business
$20.30/license/month
Enterprise
Contact sales
GoTo Connect
Website
App.goto.com
Rating
4.4 out of 5
Best For
Businesses looking for specific communication needs
A screenshot from the GoTo Connect Dashboard
Based in Boston, this company was founded in the year 2003 as a remote access and screen-sharing company. Today, it has reported over $1.3 billion in revenue, 10 million users, and 3,500 employees. This SaaS company has been helping big businesses connect no matter where they are. Here are the pros and cons to look for:
Pros:
Excellent user interface
Good integration with Salesforce, Slack, etc.
Quality calls and customer support
Cons:
Chat function might see some issues sometimes
The mobile app user interface needs to be improved
Some calls might fail to get through
Pricing:
Have a look at the pricing details of GoTo Connect.
Plan
Pricing
Basic
$27.00/user/month
Standard
$32.00 /user /month
Premium
$43.00 /user /month
Conclusion
As a business trying to tackle competition and thrive in the modern world, having an excellent communication system becomes important. A slight delay in communication could mean a big chunk of customers wincing away. Thecloud phone system is an excellent solution that provides remote communication using different mediums like voice, chat, screen-share, etc. If you are a small-scale business looking for a cheaper communication setup, you may go for 8×8 or MagicJack. If you have specific demands, you may go for GoTo, Vonage, Dialpad, MiTel, etc. Cisco can be trusted for its experience and deep history. Before choosing a cloud-based phone system, always make a list of what your requirements are; it’ll help you narrow down your search and select the company that best suits your business structure.
FAQs
What is a cloud phone?
A cloud phone system is a phone service that allows users to make and receive calls over the internet, instead of relying on traditional phone lines.
What are the benefits of a cloud-based phone system?
Key benefits of a cloud-based phone system are:
Easy implementation
Cost efficiency
Advanced call features
Increased productivity
Reliability and security
How does the voice quality of a cloud-based phone system compare to a traditional phone line?
Depending on factors such as internet speed and network reliability, the voice quality of a cloud-based phone system can be similar to or better than that of a traditional phone line.
Can a cloud-based phone system be used by businesses of all sizes?
Yes, a cloud-based phone system can be used by businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.
How secure is a cloud-based phone system?
The security of a cloud-based phone system depends on the measures put in place by the provider and the user.
Cloud computing is a way of accessing compute and storage systems without actually owning and doing active management of the resources. Cloud computing services include a wide range of categories right from storage and networking up to the use of AI. Cloud computing is emerging as the new basics for developing new applications.
There are three main types of cloud computing:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It hosts the infrastructure on the public cloud and private cloud instead of in a traditional on-premises data center.
Software as a Service(SaaS) – It is a way of delivering applications over the internet as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software you simply access it via the internet.
Platform as a Service(PaaS) – It is a cloud computing model where a third-party provider delivers hardware and software tools to users over the internet.
Cloud computing is still an emerging industry. Due to heavy demand, there are various cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, Oracle, SAP, VM Ware, etc. which are competing with each other in the market.
Visme- An example of cloud-based online presentation software
Online presentation software is a cloud-based platform where you can log in and create a presentation in the cloud. Presentation software is a desktop or cloud-based application that allows the user to present information to an audience using a sequence of multimedia formats such as images, video, audio, and text.
Online presentation software has unlimited file sizes, easy sharing, and advanced analytics. Some of the best presentation software tools for creativity are Visme, Slidebean, Vyond, Haiku Deck, Prezi, Google Slides, Apple Keynote, Slides, ZohoShow, Custom Show, etc.
Features Of Cloud Computing
Start a Cloud-Based Application Development Service
A cloud application or cloud app stands for the application or program which involves the internet as the center of the application for a few uses. In simple words, Cloud computing-based applications are that application who runs on the internet or are dependent on the internet for storage purpose while user interference is done by the use of API.
Cloud-based applications are increasing day by day to numerous advantages offered to them such as no need for any external storage device, quite cheaper than other products, and many other advantages.
However, cloud-based application developers can easily create a cloud-based application by the use of a data and processing unit. But they should keep a few things in check while working on the application development such as speed and security of the network, proper architecture of the platform, etc.
Cloud App market size in us billion dollar for years 2015-2022
Most telecom providers are heavily dependent on large computing infrastructure. Using the cloud can reduce internal computing resource needs and release excess use by paying customers.
Cloud communications providers deliver voice and data. Cloud communications stand for the meaning of the communication taken place by the means of the cloud or internet. Telecommunication takes place with the use of the internet but has the involvement of any third-party-made applications. The best example of cloud-based telecommunication services is a call center.
Cloud communications providers do these things:
Deliver voice and data communications applications and services
Hosting them on servers that the providers own and maintain
Giving their customers access to the ‘cloud’
Start a Cloud Monitoring Service
Amazon CloudWatch- An example of cloud-based monitoring service
Cloud monitoring stands for the reviewing process that controls the operational workflow to evaluate and monitor the activities happening within a cloud infrastructure. This process is mainly used to prevent the presence of any security gap in the cloud infrastructure and to avoid any security attack in advance.
Types of cloud services to monitor:
There are multiple types of cloud services to monitor. Cloud monitoring is not just about monitoring servers hosted on AWS or Azure.
SaaS – Services like Office 365, Salesforce, and others.
PaaS – Developer-friendly services like SQL databases, caching, storage, and more.
IaaS – Servers hosted by cloud providers like Azure, AWS, Digital Ocean, and others.
FaaS – New serverless applications like AWS Lambda and Azure Functions.
Application Hosting – Services like Azure App Services, Heroku, etc.
How Cloud Monitoring Works
The cloud has several moving elements, and it’s crucial to make sure that everything works in perfect sync to optimize performance. Cloud monitoring primarily includes the following:
VM Monitoring: Monitoring the virtual machines (instances) created on the cloud.
Web Pages Monitoring: Monitoring the traffic, processes, resource utilization, and availability of cloud-hosted websites.
Database Monitoring: Monitoring different components of cloud database resources such as processes, queries, availability, and consumption.
Storage Monitoring: Monitoring storage resources on the cloud and tracking resource utilization.
Application Monitoring: Proactively monitoring the availability & performance of critical applications deployed on the cloud whether it is on AWS or Microsoft Azure.
Create a Cloud Printing Technology
As the popularity of cloud services is expanding now the cloud is used in printing. Cloud printing can be described as the use of cloud computing technology to print a document. It can be understood as a network of few devices all connected by the cloud. This collection of devices can also be directly or indirectly connected with the printing stations making them all interconnected.
The prime advantage of using cloud printing technology is that it eliminates the need of having a separate printer. Other advantages of having a cloud-based printing technology include low cost, positive for the environment, use of advanced technologies, etc.
Cloud printing technology can be created by the use of on-the-shelf applications and a server or one can also get their application made for the same purpose. Cloud printing technology is in great demand nowadays because of more working hours and less time to use on these simple tasks.
Start a Cloud Real Estate Business
HubSpot CRM- An example of cloud-based real estate service provider
80% of the top real estate performers are using some form of cloud. The real estate industry, like many other sectors, is making its way into the cloud. This transformation impacts how both residential and commercial properties are listed, searched, photographed, discovered by potential owners, and sold.
Benefits of cloud real estate business include less operational cost, faster work, increased data security, and consistency in the workflow, and all of these factors lead to the better business output. Real estate business can easily be shifted to the cloud if we consider the fact that the majority of the work dealing with real estate business is done by mobile and out of the office space.
Real estate business on the cloud can easily be developed by the use of some applications which fall true to the requirements and all can be managed effortlessly. One example of a real estate business based on cloud computing is Hubspot CRM.
Start a Cloud Security Firm
HyTrust- An example of cloud-based security firm
Cloud Security or Cloud Computing Security means nothing but protecting the cloud data or information from hacking, deletion, any online theft, leakage, etc. Cloud Security is offered through a group of applications, firewalls, policies, VPN controls, technologies, little software-based tools, etc. Cloud Security is a part of the network or computer security.
Cloud security means the company is responsible for the protection of the data and processes involving the cloud network. They prevent the information from being stolen or leakage. Cloud security can be offered in the name of software or tools like firewalls, policies, VPNs, etc.
Cloud security is a part of computer security. There different organizations helping in the reduction of the risk and improving security are cloud access security brokers (CASB), software-defined computes (SDC) security, cloud workload protection platforms, and SaaS security.
The cloud security firm is responsible to introduce tools that help out in the security of the cloud network or the multinational networks. The best example of a cloud-based security business firm is HyTrust.
Set up a Cloud Marketing Business
Marketing is the base for every business to perform better. Different types of marketing are available in the market. One of them is cloud-based marketing.
Uses of cloud computing in marketing are Cloud ERP, marketing automation, Inbound marketing, lead tracking, and sales cycle management. One can easily set up their cloud marketing business by understanding new tactics used in digital marketing.
Start a Cloud Software Engineering Service
Cloud software is the solution that comes to mind for organizations to fulfill their interest driven by the desire to significantly improve their businesses and have the ability to understand IT for an affordable cost. Service-oriented software engineering helps in the identification of the best features involved in both the services as well as cloud computing paradigms.
It offers multiple advantages in the favor of software development and application development. The benefits of cloud computing for software development are scalability, cost-efficiency, redundancy, quick resources, wide geographic reach, easy deployment, etc. One can easily get into the field of cloud software engineering services with the knowledge and proper plan.
Start a Cloud Automation Engineering Service
A cloud automation engineer is a challenging role for any IT professional because of the varied requirements. They are the one who creates and maintains the cloud software that allows the easy functioning of the cloud.
Even though it is a great business idea to step up as a cloud automation engineer, one needs to be knowledgeable enough to accomplish this task. Cloud automation engineering services need to be seamless while using them. And to ensure this, a cloud automation engineer is given up the task of many complex things.
They are responsible for the whole coding and scripting of the software while giving out their updates on time and performing maintenance checks as per the schedules. They also work to get the service automated to avoid any downtime in their work pattern.
Google Drive- An example of cloud-based file hosting service provider
Cloud Service providers are vendors that provide Information Technology (IT) as a service over the Internet. Cloud computing companies’ services range from full application development platforms to servers, storage, and virtual desktops.
With the introduction of cloud hosting, the hosting industry has seen a significant change in providing solutions. Now they provide services with much reliability and resilience for the customers. Cloud storage means storing data in a remote location that is accessible from any device.
Having the business of a cloud file hosting service provider is tricky yet demanding in the market. If started with a proper plan and tools, it can prove to be a life-changing decision.
Future of Cloud Computing
Future of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing might seem like something unusual or tricky concept. However, in the upcoming future, it will form the base of almost every business. Cloud computing provides the solutions for business owners that they are exactly looking forward to embracing.
Hence, undoubtedly cloud computing will emerge as a new norm in the IT industry and it will continue to grow with many new modifications taking place in it. Some of the advantages of cloud computing for business are Increase Storage Capacity, Enhanced Performance of the Internet, Modular Software Will Be a Priority, Data Shows How Future Changes, Security, Economic savings, etc.
Conclusion
Cloud computing means accessing a network to store, manage, and process the data without actually owning the network or any hardware storage system. Cloud computing businesses are one of the prime emerging fields in present fields.
There are a number of ways one can start cloud computing businesses. Cloud computing business can also fall into the wide categories of printing, security, marketing, real estate, etc. Some of the best cloud computing business ideas have been shared in the above context.
FAQs
What business can I start with cloud computing?
Cloud computing can help the person to create their own business falling in the category of Healthcare, Remote working, education, fitness, etc. Some of the most famous examples of cloud computing are Dropbox, Gmail, Amazon web series, etc.
Is cloud computing a good business?
The cloud computing business depends upon the cloud server and saves the owner the work of setting up a physical store. The biggest advantage of having a cloud computing business is to have a chance of reselling the cloud server if something goes wrong in business and cloud computing businesses are the new emerging type of business nowadays. All this proves that cloud computing is a good business.
What is a cloud computing business?
Cloud computing business refers to the service that uses the internet as its central part. The business made up with the help of cloud computing technology to provide services is counted as a cloud computing business.
How do I start a cloud computing business?
Cloud computing business can easily be started out but with a few steps to follow such as selecting the cloud as per the need, registering for the cloud, searching for a similar company, creating your marketing plan, purchasing required things, having a physical office space fixed, improvise the plan with time and the cloud computing business is ready to face the market.
Nowadays Project Management Software is a necessary technology, that is widely used by many people searching for user-friendly, productive software solutions with dependencies, resource allocation, project management, and recurring tasks. One of the most popular automated workflow systems is Microsoft Power Automate (earlier known as Microsoft Flow) but people are looking for other automated systems that offer more features for lesser costs.
What is Microsoft Flow? The platformis a cloud-based system that allows a user to create automated workflows, simplify various business processes and manage them more effectively.Microsoft Flow now known as Microsoft Power Automate is a new app that is a part of the office 365 suite and allows users or employees to automate business processes by building workflows based on certain triggers and actions.
Once the flow is built into the device, it can be managed on the desktop or even through a mobile app. Microsoft Power Automate can be integrated with various Microsoft services and apps such as Power BI, Dynamics 365, PowerApps, and Office 365.
One of the main reasons employees use Microsoft Power Automateis because of its services like automation for notifications, synchronizing files, alerts, data gathering, and communication that will help them spend less time. Let us take a look at some of the top Microsoft flow alternatives.
One of the main uses of the Microsoft workflow tool is that it automates everything from a simple push-up notification, alerts, data gathering, and important content management. So, for example, an automated workflow can send sales representatives an email or text message with details about the lead. It can also be used to copy files, as when a new file is added to dropbox for business, the workflow can instantly transport the file to SharePoint.
When it comes to Collecting data, for instance, it helps users find out what people are saying about a particular service, product, or brand by capturing new tweet that mentions the product, service, or brand and putting a copy of those tweets in an SNL database. Microsoft flow software bots can also help employees trigger flows within Team’s conversations. Microsoft changed its name from Microsoft flow to Microsoft Power Automate in 2019.
Anyone that has a Microsoft account can use flow, it also comes along with business versions of Office 365 workflow tools and Dynamics 365. Microsoft Flow cost is divided into three pricing plans that come with a certain number of runs and checks.
The Per-user plan: This allows the user to create unlimited flows and allows individual users to analyze their processes.
The Per-user plan with attended RPA: This plan allows individual users to analyze their processes and create unlimited cloud flows, plus automate legacy applications via the RPA and AI. This also includes 5,000 AI Builder service credits per month. This plan costs $40 per month per user.
The Per Flow Plan: Implement cloud flows with reserved capacity for unlimited users across your organization. It also offers its users many exclusive premium features and add ons and is $500 per month for five flows. While additional flows may be purchased for $100 per flow per month.
Unlike flow alternatives, this platform can integrate with the other Microsoft products, software, and apps like Power BI, Dynamics 365, PowerApps and is a Office 365 alternative.
The Microsoft workflow software can also be used with other apps such as Salesforce, SQL Server, Twitter, Box, DocuSign, Slack, Skype, and Google Drive.
Flow offers a wide arrange of prebuilt flows known as templates depending on what the user wants.
Save Gmail attachments to OneDrive or dropbox.
When the Power BI data alert is triggered, the flow will send emails to the audience.
Save tweets with specific hashtags, brand, service, or products names to a SharePoint list.
Get notifications when you receive an email from your employees or boss.
The Microsoft flow chart creator helps you make your own (personalize) flows depending on what action you want, for example, it will manually press a button when the flow is triggered or schedule action based on time or day.
Many of these alternatives come from a wide variety of platforms like Online / Web-based, Windows, Linux, SaaS, and iPhone, etc.
How to use Microsoft flow for basic tasks? The platform has both low code or codeless automation tools and cloud-based apps that can be used by users to connect apps, they can also use drag-and-drop tools, prebuilt connectors, automated office processes, and perform mundane tasks with ease.
Here are the top alternatives to Microsoft Power Automate
IFTTT
IFTTT Website
IFTTT is also known as If This Then That is a popular platform that provides services that allow a user to program response to events in the world. IFTTT is one of the Best Microsoft flows alternatives because it can be used as a web interface or as apps on both iOS and Android. The platform was first founded by Tibbets and Jesse Tan and launched in 2011.
Unlike IFTTT alternatives, this tool uses syntax and conditional statements to automate workflows, not only that it also offers single action workflows. One of the main features of IFTTT is that the user can create automation chains between many of their apps so that certain events trigger other events to occur automatically.
IFTTT was initially free, but in 2020 it switched to a limited freemium model with a subscription-based version known as “IFTTT Pro”, which allows services to use conditional statements and query data for more complex tasks.
Zapier
Zapier Website
Zapier is a well-known company that allows end-users to integrate web applications that they use. Zapier was started by Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop as part of the first Startup Weekend Columbia in 2011. The company is one of the top flow alternatives, which is currently based in Sunnyvale, California, and has over 350 employees in the US and 23 other countries.
Its main features are that it provides workflows to automate the use of web applications together at the business or personal level.People use zapier for Facebook lead ads but don’t allow users to make automate multistep workflows, but also provide its users with third-party apps. Zapier’s open-source alternative has a free option, as well as two levels of monthly paid subscription plans for businesses.
Huginn is another popular Microsoft power-apps alternative to Microsoft flow as it is a web-based scheduling service that runs workers knowns as agents.Huginn was created by Andrew Cantino in 2013 to help users create agents that monitor and act on their behalf.Huginn alternatives like Zapier and IFTTT but is open source and similar to each other.
With Huginn, a user can automate simple tasks such as watching for air travel deals, constantly watching for certain topics on Twitter, or scanning for sensitive data in your code. This Microsoft flow alternative is responsible for performing functions like sending an email or requesting a website and can be scheduled or executed manually. After installing Huginn, the user can extend it by using one of the many available agent gems, or by creating their own.
n8n.io
n8n.io Website
n8n.io is free and powerful automated alternatives that provide an open node-based workflow automation tool that can be self-hosted, easily extended, and used with other internal tools. It can also be used with 3rdparty web applications and custom in-house tools to automate repetitive tasks. The platform is a Microsoft zapier alternative and was founded by Jan Oberhauser in 2019 with its headquarters based in Berlin.
Users of n8n.io can move beyond making simple integrations to build multistep workflows that can be combined with third-party APIs and their own internal tools to create easy-to-use automation. Flow alternatives are the best for small startups to the enterprise as it is available to self-host, and allow you to add your own custom functions, logic, and apps.
Integromat is a top alternative to office 365for windows 10 and is a well-known mobile app/automation tool that allows its users or businesses to automate tasks that are currently done manually. The company was founded by Michal Toman, Ondrej Gazda, Patrik in 2012 and is currently freemium. It provides services such as connecting to any app or service, unlimited checks unlike microflow flow, and over 1500 ready-to-use templates.
Unlike the Microsoft workflow tool, this platform users can track real-time scenario executives to complete visualization of the data, schedule according to their preference, have multiple teams work on the same scenario,work with different kinds of files, etc among the various services. It is also similar to Microsoft flowchart software as it triggers which can return bundles that were newly added or updated and has modules that can split a large bundle into multiple smaller bundles.
Skyvia
Skyvia Website
Skyvia is one of the top flow alternatives and a widely preferred freemium cloud data platform for many people as it has no coding data integration, cloud to cloud backup, management via SQL and even data access through a Data interface. Skyvia was founded in 1997 and has its headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic. This is one of the Microsoft powerapps alternatives that is a quicker and easier solution for many data-related tasks without the requirement of coding, while it is similar to Microsoft flow chart creator.
It’s known for its solutions to Data Integration, cloud data Backup, data management with SQL, CSV import/export, Query, and Connect as it is similar to power bi data-driven alert. Unlike Skyvia alternatives, it does not require locally installed software except for a web browser, however these products come with their own set of pricing and are priced separately.
Automate.io is known to be the world easiest workflow automation and iPaaS platform. The platform helps many small to medium businesses in automating repetitive tasks and workflows by connecting their cloud applications. Automate.io is a leading power automate alternative, founded in 2016 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California.
Automate.io is one of the best Microsoft Power Automate alternatives as users can send automated emails, run campaigns, automate social and mobile messages, run smart Twitter campaigns, etc. Compared to other automate io alternatives, the platform has over 200 plus connectors for all leading cloud and SaaS apps available. Other features include formatting data, time delay into your workflows, data encryption, etc.
CloudHQ
CloudHQ Website
CloudHQ is an IT company that was founded by Senad Dizdar in 2011 with its headquarters in San Francisco, California. This Microsoft Power Automate alternative offers a huge suite of productivity tools that can also be integrated with Gmail. Its main tools are an email tracker, email templates, and email sharing. One of the few Microsoft powerapps alternatives that come in two options one-way sync to two-way sync.
One way sync replicates from one main cloud service to a secondary account, while two-way sync adds and does revisions in the main account that will eventually be replicated to the secondary account. Just like Microsoft workflow software, the main objective of the company is to synchronize data for companies make it easy for sharing of files and data across multiple platforms, integration between cloud services, project collaboration and backup of data, etc.
Conclusion
Many of these workflow automation platforms usually have similar features like automation for notifications, synchronize files, data synchronization, alerts, data gathering, and communication, etc. And that is exactly what Microsoft Power Automate is known for, but the best apps like flow can be costly and complicated to use.
This is why the alternatives above can be used as they help small businesses get these features at an economical price so they can automate away your tedious and repetitive tasks. Hopefully, these Microsoft Power Automate alternatives helped you find what you were looking for.
Microsoft Power Automate also known as Microsoft Flow is a cloud-based system with which a user can create automated workflows, simplifying the business processes and machining it easier to manage them more effectively.
What are some of the features of Microsoft Power Automate features?
Some of the features of Microsoft flow are that you can integrate it with the other Microsoft products, Save Gmail attachments, save tweets with specific hashtags or names, get notifications, and make your own flows, etc.
How much does Microsoft Power Automate cost?
Microsoft Flow has three pricing plans that come with a certain number of runs and checks. Which is the free version, The mid-tier level, Flow plan 1 costing $5 per month and The business level, Flow Plan 2 which costs $15 per month.
What are the alternatives of Microsoft power Automate?
The Microsoft Power Automate alternatives are CloudHQ, Automate.io, Skyvia, Integromat, n8n.io, Huginn, Zapier and IFTTT.
What replaced Microsoft Flow?
Microsoft rebranded Flow to ‘Power Automate’, but it is the same platform with some advanced tools.
Wipro Limited is an Indian multinational corporation that is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It is known for Wipro products and services list which includes IT services, BPO services, IT consulting, testing, research and development in the software and hardware areas of companies around the world.
Wipro Group is a global leader when it comes to cognitive computing, robotics, hyper-automation, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies. The Wipro group of companies list is recognized globally for its portfolio of services, sustainability and corporate citizenship. The chairman of the company is Azim Premji who is the second wealthiest person in India and the person credited for the success of Wipro.
The Wipro subsidiary companies are well one of the top IT service providing companies different types of Wipro products such as enterprise application services like ERP, SCM, CRM to services like E-procurement, E-Business solutions. The Wipro subsidiaries are divided into four different parts which are Wipro Limited, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering And Wipro GE Medical Systems Limited.
The Wipro group companies offer services and products of Wipro to various industries like Finance, Telecom, Media, Utilities, Energy and Entertainment. Not only that, but Wipro company is also one of the largest R&D services in the world. The company has over 180,000 employees from various countries across six continents. Wipro also offers Consulting services and helps companies in Business Process Outsourcing which help in HR, Procurement, Finance and Accounting.
The Wipro sub-companies also provide technology infrastructure services in terms of revenue, people and to over 200 customers in the US, Japan and Europe and 650 customers in India. The total revenue of Wipro as of 2021 is over $10 billion while its net income for 2021 is $1.4 billion. Wipro Industries is known to be the largest public-traded company in India and the seventh-largest IT Services Company in the world.
Wipro originally known as the Western India Palm Refined Oil Limited (abbreviated to Wipro) started in December 1945 by its founder Mohamed Premji. The initial products of Wipro were different types of oil, as it started out as a manufacturer of vegetable and other refined oil known as Kisan, sunflower and camel in Maharashtra.
In 1966, Azim Premji took over as the company’s chairman after his father’s death. The name of the company was changed from Western Indian products limited to Wipro products in 1977. That name was further replaced by Wipro limited in 1982, this was because in the same ear the company also entered the IT industry.
Azim Premji is responsible for transforming Wipro into a Wipro Fluid company and also introducing Wipro Fluid Power that manufactures hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders. In 1979 Wipro became India’s first computer manufacturer as the company developed and sold its computers in 1981. With its success, the company forayed into the field of software development and is credited for introducing software packages for hardware customers.
Facts on Wipro
In the 1990s, the company got started its range of baby toiletries like Wipro baby soft and also the Santoor talcum powder which became a staple in Indian homes which was among the first Wipro subsidiaries. Wipro Infotech and Wipro system got merged with Wipro in 1995 and they became Wipro subsidiary companies. The company expanded internationally in the 1990s and even got listed on New York Stock Exchange in 2000. It was in 2002 that Wipro became the first Indian software tech and services company to get the ISO 14001 certified.
The Wipro subsidiaries list kept growing as it ventured into manufacturing fluorescent lamps making the Wipro Consumer Care and Light Group enter the market. Wipro joined the billion-dollar club in 2004 and also partnered with Intel on a project called i-Shiksha. It wasn’t until 2012 that the company decided todemerge its consumer care, lighting, furniture, infrastructure engineering into a separate company known as the Wipro Enterprise Limited. The company further made many clever and strategic acquisitions and signed contracts with many international firms.
Wipro has so far made over 19 acquisitions and 8 investments. All the Wipro acquisitions so far are estimated to beover $2.49 billion. The company has invested in many industries like SaaS, Search AF test, standard, manufacturing tech. Some of the top companies in the Wipro acquisitions list are Infocrossing acquired for $600 million in August 2007. One of the other top Wipro acquisitions was Appirio acquired for $500 million in October 2016 and HealthPlan Services acquired for $460 million in February 2016.
Some of the other recent Wipro acquired companies are Rational Interactions a settle based digital customer experiences consultancy which the company acquired in February 2020. Wipro recent acquisition was in October 2020, when Wipro acquired Encore Theme Technologies, that same month it also acquired Eximius Design for $80 million. The last Wipro acquisition was in March 2021 was Capco a British consultancy firm.
Topcoder became one of the Wipro subsidiaries when the company was acquired by Wipro in 2016 along with Appirio which were a part of their $500 million deal. Topcoder is a crowdsourcing company that has a huge global community of data scientists, developers, programmers and designers. How Topcoder works is that it pays the members of its community for offering its services to corporate, mid-size or even small business clients.
The company is also known for its yearly Topcoder Open tournament and other small regional events. This subsidiary of Wiprowas founded by Jack Hughes in the year of 2001, the company first started with Competitive programming challenges which helped generate interest among the student community. The company became one of the Wipro sister companies when it started offering various software development services and similar products of Wipro to 3rd party clients.
In order to generate more income, the company started new competition tracks that gave more work to its employees. After being acquired by Wipro the company has continued to offer its clients many hybrid crowd platforms and help create certified and private crowdsourcing communities. Wipro then integrated its employee’s only crowdsourcing platform TopGear with Topcoder.
The various services offered by the Topcoder design community are Information Architecture which helps the clients with wireframing and generating ideas. It also helps with the UI/U/CX design which involves the creation of apps and web designs and coming up with design concepts, ideas and presentation design all of which are said to be top Wipro company products. The software development challenges that topcoder offers are bug bash, code, first to finish, etc.
Appirio
Wipro Subsidiary- Appirio logo
Appirio is one of the best Wipro acquisitions, as it was acquired in 2016 as a part of their $500 million deal along with Topcoder. The company was founded by Chris Barbin, Narinder Singh, Glenn Weinstein and Mike O Brien. Appirio is currently one of the topWipro sub-companies as offers information technology consulting services and has its headquarters based in Indianapolis in the USA. It company is known for its tech and professional services that its offers only to the clients that want to adopt public cloud applications.
They also offer SaaS services like Salesforce and Google apps which are the top products of Wipro. The main competitors of Appirio’s are Accenture and Deloitte. The company was founded by Salesforce and angel investors ($1.1 million), Sequoia Capital ($5.6 million), Sequoia Capital and GGV capital ($10 million) and General Atlantic ($60 million).
The company is a leader among Wipro group of companies and was awarded many titles such as On-Demand Company Of The Year by AlwaysOn, Best Place To Work In Bay Area by San Francisco Business Times in 2010. This is one of the few Wipro listed companies that have many other satellite offices in cities like Tokyo, London, Dublin, Sydney, Espoo, Stockholm, Porto, Pune, Bangalore, Noida, Hyderabad and Jaipur. The company is known to utilize public cloud solutions as it is a serverless company.
Opus Capital Markets Consultants
Wipro Subsidiary- Opus Capital logo
Opus is one of the top companies in the financial services industry which is why it became one of the top Wipro subsidiary companies. The headquarters are based in Lincolnshire in Illinois, the US and have over 500 employees. The company was founded in 2005 that became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wipro in 2013. Opus offers various services like Residential mortgage, commercial mortgage, Compliances services, servicing reviews and advisory services which extends the Wipro company products list.
The company is among the few Wipro subsidiaries that specialize in risk management providers for mortgage and consumer lenders, services and investors. The company is focused on delivering a wide range of services like due diligence, quality control, servicing oversight and operational assessment.
Yardley of London is a British personal care brand that was acquired by Wipro in 2009 and is one of the unique Wipro subsidiaries. The company is known to be one of the oldest and specializes in cosmetics, fragrances and toiletry products. Yardley is also one of the biggest manufacturers of soap and perfumes, which increases the Wipro FMCG products. Yardley is known to have received two Royal Warrants.
The company was originally established by the cleaver family in 1770. The name of the company was changed to Yardley and Statham in 1823 after William Statham brought the firm. Yardley has made many soaps that are to this date popular. Because of the growing popularity of Yardley soaps and cosmetics in the 20th century, the company opened a shop in London in 1910.
In 1991, the company also introduced men’s grooming products. In 2005, the Jatanias which is Britain richest Indian family brought Yardley for 60 million euros 2005. It wasn’t until 2009 that Wipro consumer care brought Yardley for $45 million the brand ambassador for Yardley in India is Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif. Yardley is among the most popular Wipro company products.
Wipro GE Medical Systems
Wipro Subsidiary- GE Healthcare logo
Wipro GE Medical Systems is a joint venture between GE Healthcare South Asia and Wipro in 1990 and is currently one of the top Wipro companies in India. The company is known for its research and development of healthcare products. The company increases the Wipro products list in India, as it manufactures a vast variety of gadgets and equipment for diagnostics, healthcare ITand services to help healthcare professionals that are used for combat cancer, heart disease and other ailments.
Wipro GE Medical Systems is among the only company in Wipro companies list that strictly follows six sigma quality standards in all products. The company is an expert in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnosis, patent monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing tech, performance improvement and solution services, which are among the well known Wipro company products list. They offer all these services at a lower cost.
The company is among the most respected Wipro group companies as it is present in Asia Pacific, China, Africa, Europe, India, Latin America, America and Canada. The specializes in making products for Vascular, Orthopedics, Spine, Urology, Cardiac, General Surgery, Pain Management, Outpatient Interventional.
Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting
Products of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting
Wipro Consumer Care and lightning are one of the biggest and fastest FMCG companies in countries like India, Asia and Africa. It is one of the most successful companies owned by Wipro as its annual sales revenue is now up to Rs. 77.4 Crore in the year 2019 to 2020. The company is currently present in 20 different countries like India, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Wipro consumer care and lightning have over 16 manufacturing units in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, China and South Africa.
The company also has Research and Innovation Centers in India, Malaysia, China, the Philippines and South Africa. They are based in 22 countries, marketed in 60 plus countries with over 10,000 plus employees. The Wipro company products list such as like personal wash products, skincare products, male grooming products, toiletries, household products, furniture, commercial lighting, etc is well known in the country.
Wipro Consumer Care and lightning are among the top Wipro group of companies as has made several acquisitions like Unza, Yardley, LD Waxsons in order to get a global footprint. The key brands of Wipro consumer care and lighting are Santoor, Chandrika, Maxkleen, Giffy, Enchanteur, Safi, Aiken, Romano, Carrie, Garnet, Splash which come from different parts of the world.
This company is one of the Wipro companies in India and is known for developing, marketing and manufacturing hydraulic cylinders that are used for cargo handling, mining, freight and waste processing. The company also makes various products such as filters, pumps, valves, rear hinges and different components of hydraulic cylinders.
It is known to deliver over a million cylinders to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)across the world. The company specializes in top Wipro products and services such as hydraulic cylinders for Construct and Earthmoving, Material and Cargo handling, Forestry, Farm and agriculture and mining. The company’s business has stepped up and launched specific solutions to fight Covid 19.
Conclusion
Wipro is an Indian conglomerate that has a global footprint for its services and products like IT services, BPO services, IT consulting, testing, research and development services. One of the main reasons for the company’s success is the strategic and clever subsidiaries it has acquired. Wipro group companies were and will continue to be a leader in the consumer market space and will increase the Wipro clients list. Because of the Wipro subsidiaries and Wipro acquisitions, the company has an extensive Wipro products list in India.
The Internet can be considered as a miracle in our life, which changes the outlook of our world. Thanks to the internet, our life has become much easier. It wouldn’t be wrong to call the internet the greatest invention of the modern world. The internet has connected everyone and converted this huge world into a small global village.
In this technologically advance and IT-dominated world, cloud computing is the new player. The days are long gone where you only have computer hard drives, where we used to store data and run programs. Now, because of the internet, we have the cloud computing system to do that.
Cloud computing enables us to store, manage and process data through the internet. Basically, it is a prototype that provides on-demand network access to shared computing resources.
Now to be specific, there are three delivery models of cloud computing and they are: SaaS, IaaS and PaaS
Today, in this article we are going to discuss PaaS and the market size of the PaaS industry. So, let’s get started.
“With the cloud, individuals and small businesses can snap their fingers and instantly set up enterprise-class services.”
The first question that arises in our mind when we hear PaaS is, What is PaaS?. To be specified PaaS also known as Platform as a service is one of the delivery models of cloud computing that deals with application development with the hardware and software tools provided by the third party.
This model gives the user a free pass to develop and run the new applications without installing any hardware or software and also provides the necessary components needed for the deed.
How does Platform as a Service (PaaS) Work?
PaaS is provided through public, private, and hybrid clouds. They mainly provide an infrastructure for the development of an application. One can just have their access through a web browser.
This is mostly a pay per use basis service, although there is an option of the monthly fee as well, where the users have to pay the provider per month for the service.
A PaaS provider offers operating systems, database management tools, infrastructure, development tools, middleware, and other important equipment needed in the cloud environment.
Pros and Cons of Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS as a service is gradually becoming a very significant part of the cloud computing industry.
There are many reasons why people prefer it, some of them are:
Pros
The first and foremost reason would be cost-saving; it is probably the most important one. The pay per use basis barred the enterprise to use more expenses, this cannot be possible if in-house hardware and software are used.
The user can access it from anywhere and at any time, thus giving a free pass to people from all around the world to collaborate in the development of an application.
Using in-house resources and managing can take a lot of time which may result in delays. Developing application tends to be faster with the help of PaaS as the resources are managed automatically here.
Any kind of device, mobile desktop, laptop can be used to develop applications through PaaS, unlike an on-site development platform that enables only one specific device.
The web-based nature of PaaS helps in getting updated tools automatically. While in-house technology tends to get out of date
Just like the advantages, everything has its disadvantages as well, nothing is perfect. There are challenges that are needed to be solved and they are:
Cons
Public PaaS products are not appropriate and are a basic concern for security as there are many people using the product and sharing the space with others.
PaaS products are made by the providers, so there is no say of the users here. They have to use what they are being provided with. Therefore compatibility issues can arise.
Moving from one platform to another can be a little tricky.
Platform as a service (PaaS) end-user spending worldwide
Market Size of the Platform as a Service (PaaS) Industry
The main reason for the growth of PaaS industry is because of the rise of cloud-based business. Many industries are adopting cloud services as they are able to meet their business goals at a minimal cost. With Covid-19 still looming over our heads, big businesses are opting for PaaS for developing and managing applications.
The growth of PaaS industry is because of the minimal cost required for application development with that the time that is given during the procedure is much lesser than what the users give during the onsite application development. Although, security issues can be a hinder to the growth of this market.
As per the reports, the market size of industry is 56.2 billion as of 2020 and it is expected to grow to 164.3 billion by 2026. The IT industry is looking forward to getting more involved with PaaS.
Best Platform as a Service (PaaS) Providers
There are various vendors who provides some of the best PaaS services and they are:
Amazon Web Services – Elastic Beanstalk
IBM – Bluemix
Microsoft – Azure
Red Hat – OpenShift
Google – App Engine
Microsoft – Azure
Engine Yard
Heroku
Pivotal
Mendix
Conclusion
Technological advancement has taken the world to a different level. Thanks to that, humans are innovating things that are making life much easier than one could ever imagine. A thing can be developed with minimal cost is not time-consuming anymore.
PaaS industry will only rise with time and with the existence of on spot infrastructure and tools that are needed for the development and managing of applications. It is just a matter of time before every kind of business will pick the side of cloud computing and will involve itself in the PaaS industry.
FAQ
How Big is the Cloud Services Industry?
The market size of the global cloud industry is expected to reach $791.48 billion by 2028.
What is the main function of PaaS?
The main function of Pass is to develop, update, test, and host applications all in the same domain.
Which is the biggest PaaS Provider in the World?
Amazon Web Services is one of the biggest and best PaaS providers in the world.
Cloud services have become a part of everyday life and the transition has been barely noticeable. Since information is mostly digital now, there’s a need for storage and retrieval. Cloud storage has gained popularity due to its accessibility and scalability. The ability to have store and retrieve any number of files through the internet is now a reality thanks to cloud storage solutions.
Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud storage solutions in the market. But after the recent $5 billion lawsuit against the company for tracking user data, you might be on the lookout for a new storage solution. pCloud is a simple and secure cloud storage platform for all your storage needs. It’s got all the basic features with some added functionality and a minimal UI.
Founded in 2014, pCloud is a Switzerland-based company with over 14 million users now. The highlights of the platform being their focus on simplicity and end-user experience. So far pCloud has data centers in both the US and Europe while granting users a choice between them.
When choosing a cloud service it’s essential to know whether or not it supports your most used features. pCloud does a good job of maintaining functionality behind the hood while presenting users with a clean interface to avoid any sort of complications.
The service is accessible via applications for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. There is also a web version ensuring that you have access to your files with almost any device that has a browser. That being said here are some of the platform’s key features:
File Syncing
pCloud does a great job of syncing your files across to all your devices. The automatic cloud sync can back up your photos, documents, videos, files and entire folders to the cloud.
The pCloud Drive can also be used to backup files from your desktop periodically so that your files remain safe and can be restored in case something goes wrong. pCloud Drive can also be used to stream content directly to any device. This means any media content that you’ve backed up to the drive can be streamed from any device with an internet connection.
The dedicated mobile apps for android and iOS ensure that you can backup your files quickly. There’s a ‘rewind’ feature that allows users to recover any previously backed-up file that they may have deleted. It acts like a recycle bin for your pCloud Drive.
The file syncing works smoothly and can backup all your files automatically as per your choice. The backup frequency and dates can be changed to match user convenience.
pcloud recovery functionality can help you get back old files with ease
Encryption
Security is critical when using a service that deals with your personal data. pCloud provides users with both client-side and server-side encryption facilities that ensure the safety of stored data.
pCloud Crypto, their unique client-side encryption functionality allows users to encrypt their local data before transferring it to the cloud. The encryption key (Crypto Pass) is only available to the user who has created this.
plcoud encryption structure
The server also makes uses of AES 256 bit encryption to keep all your backed-up files, photos, documents, and videos safe. In fact, their encryption is so good that they’ve challenged hackers from all over the world to hack their system for a reward, and yet none had claimed the price.
pCloud lets its users share files with anyone with ease. The cloud sharing functionality means you’ll be able to share any files that you’ve uploaded. A sharable link will be generated from which the file can be downloaded.
Users can send requests to other users, allowing them to upload files to another account. The receivers simply have to click accept and the sender can transfer a file without having direct access to the account. Cloud technology has taken collaboration to the next level.
Having everything you keep on a file locally sync up to the cloud automatically certainly saves a few minutes. You can even use the public directory as a hosting service for static HTML webpages since it will be accessible to everyone.
Alternatives of pCloud
pCloud packs in functionality and security in a neat package. But if you’re still unsure about your next cloud service here are a few similar services to compare:
Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc. It’s similar to pCloud but mostly used to host downloadable files for blogs, websites, and related content.
The free plan grants you 2GB of free storage and access to features such as cloud syncing, cloud sharing, and storage from any supported device. It supports data encryption to make sure user data remains safe and untamed. However, the company had experienced a data breach back in 2016 where over 60 million user account data was stolen.
Since then the security methods used to secure user data have been updated and the service still maintains its excellent customer support for any issues users may come across.
Mediafire
MediaFire is a file hosting, file synchronization, and cloud storage service based in Texas, United States. The service is widely used for data sharing and is a popular website for hosting downloadable files.
Users get 10GB of free storage along with unlimited bandwidth and downloads. There’s also a cool feature where you can generate custom download links. Users can generate a one-time use link that can only be accessed once, so you don’t have to worry about the wrong people accessing your link.
The service is simplistic and upgrading to the paid plans is affordable as well. Mediafire is a minimal storage solution, meaning you’ll have to use something like pCloud if your general use is associated with productivity.
There is no support for viewing Pdf’s and word documents which will slow down productivity and hence it isn’t an ideal solution for businesses.
pCloud has plans suitable for all purposes. They have individual plans, which happen to be the most popular, family plans and business plans. Having an idea of the kind of features you’re getting, the prices are rather affordable.
They offer lifetime plans where you get to pay once and use the service for as long as you want. This is certainly different and provides new meaning to how you pay for the services you use.
The 500GB plans will cost you $49.99 and the 2TB plan is available for $99.99 a year. The family plan lacks an annual payment method but the one time payment of $500 seems like a more suitable option if you really need the storage.
You never know what you actually need unless you try alternatives. Cloud providers are multiplying by the day but it’s hard to find a noteworthy cloud service that has the all essential features.
pCloud is a reliable, fast, and easy service to switch to and works well for individuals and businesses alike. Overall, if you want a change of cloud storage, pCloud is sure to have those features you’ll want along with added security benefits and great customer support.
FAQ
What is pCloud?
pCloud is a simple and secure cloud storage platform.
What is the pricing of pCloud?
The premium plan of pCloud is priced at $500 and premium plus plan is priced at $980.
What are the alternatives of pCloud?
Dropbox and Mediafire are some of the alternatives of pCloud.
Singh Neeraj Shekhawat
