Everywhere you hear, “data is power,” and although it may sound like a cliché, it is just a fact. Yes, data is power, and companies that can maximize their potential can make informed decisions, gain a competitive edge, and grow faster. This is where business intelligence (BI) tools come in, and Qlik is at the forefront in this field. Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for the 13th year in a row, Qlik is a company that provides powerful data integration and data analytics tools to help businesses make sense of their data and use it to drive growth.
In recent years, Qlik has been transitioning to a cloud-based platform that provides companies with exciting new opportunities to seize every business moment through:
- Real-time information
- Auto-generated insights
- Immediate actions
As the only cloud platform built for Active Intelligence, Qlik Cloud allows you to access your data and insights from anywhere, collaborate with team members, and scale up or down as needed.
In this guide, we will explore what Qlik Cloud is, how it works, and how it can benefit businesses of all sizes. We’ll also help you plan a seamless migration to Qlik Cloud with a comprehensive step-by-step checklist.
Whether you’re a small business owner or a large enterprise, understanding Qlik Cloud can help you make faster, data-driven decisions and achieve better outcomes.
So, let’s explore the world of Qlik Cloud and see what it has to offer.
What is Qlik Cloud?
Qlik Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform that allows users to access and analyze data from any device or location securely. The platform uses modern cloud technology to provide innovative features and capabilities that enable businesses to make informed decisions and gain a competitive advantage.
Also, Qlik Cloud provides advanced features such as natural language search, predictive analytics, machine learning, and AI-powered recommendations. This makes it easier for users to uncover hidden patterns and trends in their data, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
Source: qlik.comQlik Cloud can be broken into two core features: Qlik Data Integration and Qlik Analytics. Let’s get familiar with their functionalities in detail.
Qlik Cloud Data Integration
Businesses today generate vast amounts of data. However, much of this data is not analytics-ready or accessible and is often in an unstructured and unusable format. Qlik provides a solution to this problem by operationalizing DataOps for analytics. This means that businesses can transform raw data into trustworthy and actionable insights that are easily accessible to any analytics tool. With the introduction of Qlik Cloud Data Integration, data engineers can now deliver, transform, and unify data through Qlik’s iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service), making it easier to integrate data from multiple sources and streamline the data management process.
Features and capabilities of Qlik Cloud Data Integration
- Data Movement & Streaming
Accelerate the replication, ingestion, and streaming of data across a wide range of databases, including mainframe, SAP, and SaaS applications. The platform’s real-time change data capture capabilities enable fast and efficient delivery of data to popular cloud platforms for downstream analytics. You can stream real-time updates as they come providing the freshest data and enabling real-time analytics. Also, you can flexibly automate multiple replication profiles, such as one-to-many publication, data-type mapping, and schema synchronization all in a drag-and-drop interface with no hand coding. As a result, you can stream ingestion into data lakes and integrate legacy systems with microservices environments.
- Data Warehouse Automation
Approach that automates and accelerates cloud data warehouse operations. DWA continually ingests all data in real-time, automates the entire data warehouse lifecycle with a model-driven workflow, and makes data marts readily accessible across your organization with cataloging, all without requiring a single line of code. Data engineers can create a data model, add new data sources, and provision new data marts with ease, thanks to the platform’s agility and flexibility. The use of data warehouse automation (DWA) ensures success at every step of the pipeline, from data modeling and real-time ingestion to data marts and governance.
- Data Transformation
Convert, join, enrich, consolidate, and standardize data from heterogeneous formats or structures using a modern, push-down ELT approach. Data Transformation in Qlik Cloud is easy and allows you to manipulate raw data into a structured and organized format optimized for analysis. You can collect, clean, and shape data from multiple sources like spreadsheets, databases, etc., and create a unified data model that will provide actionable insights.
- Application Automation
Delivers instant awareness about every aspect of your business and helps you drive immediate actions. You can use Qlik Application Automation to connect to market-leading SaaS applications such as Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and Slack and integrate those systems into a business process with a simple drag and drop. You can easily specify what events should trigger an action in your SaaS application, and you will be able to respond to critical changes immediately. For example, if your sales drop below a given number, you will automatically be sent an email or notification in Teams.
Qlik Cloud Analytics
Qlik is leading the way in a new generation of analytics, setting the benchmark for businesses looking to make data-driven decisions. Cloud analytics is a way of performing data analysis and business intelligence activities using a vendor-managed infrastructure rather than using your own on-premise servers. Qlik Cloud Analytics is a complete, cloud-based platform for modern business intelligence that delivers actionable insights to every decision-maker.
Features and capabilities of Qlik Cloud Analytics
- Visualization Dashboards
Visualization Dashboards are essential tools for transforming your data into business value. Qlik Cloud offers powerful visualization tools that allow users to create interactive dashboards, reports, and charts that help them better understand their data. These tools enable businesses to identify trends, patterns, and insights that might otherwise go unnoticed, making it easier to make informed decisions.
- Augmented Analytics AutoML
Qlik AutoML is part of the full suite of augmented analytics capabilities available in Qlik Cloud. It recognizes patterns and drivers in historical data to create machine-learning models that can predict future outcomes using a simple no-code approach for business analysts. You can get real-time calculations by making interactive selections and testing what-if scenarios with Qlik’s advanced analytics capabilities.
Keep exploring: Machine learning with Qlik AutoML. How it works and best practices.
- Embedded Analytics
Embedded analytics is the technology designed to make data analysis and business intelligence more accessible by any application or user. Go beyond the dashboard and put analytics at the point of decision. With a complete set of open APIs, you can embed analytics in operational apps as well as create mashups and external applications. Place analytics insights in the hands of those who can take immediate action.
- Alerting Action
By using alerts, users can receive proactive notifications regarding any alterations in data, enabling them to promptly respond to shifts in their business. Trigger event-driven actions through an intuitive, low-code interface without requiring human intervention.
Understanding Qlik Cloud Analytics Subscription Options
Qlik Cloud Analytics offers three main subscription options: Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. Each plan is designed to meet the specific needs of businesses at different stages of their data analytics journey—from small teams just getting started to large enterprises with complex requirements.
Qlik Cloud subscriptions offer a flexible capacity-based pricing model where businesses pay based on the volume of data processed or moved, rather than the number of users. This approach allows businesses to scale their usage as needed, depending on their data workloads.
Qlik Cloud offers two primary metrics for capacity:
- Data for Analysis: The total volume of data loaded into Qlik Cloud for analysis purposes.
- Data Moved: The volume of data moved between on-premise systems and Qlik Cloud or between cloud environments.
Benefits of Capacity-Based Subscriptions
1. Flexible Pricing
You only pay for what you use. You can start with a smaller data capacity and add more as your data volume grows. This gives you flexibility in managing costs while also ensuring you have the resources needed when data usage spikes.
2. Unlimited Users
You are not restricted by the number of users. This means your entire team can have access to Qlik Cloud’s analytics capabilities, with the only limitation being the data capacity you have purchased.
3. Scalability
Capacity-based subscriptions allow you to scale up as you grow. Whether you need to analyze more data or integrate more systems, you can add data packs that give you the flexibility to adapt as your business evolves.
4. Cost Control
By monitoring consumption, you can predict their analytics costs and plan for future data needs. This is ideal for organizations that need predictable, manageable budgets but still want the ability to scale when required.
5. Seamless Integration
You can seamlessly integrate data from on-premise systems, SaaS solutions, and cloud platforms into Qlik Cloud, ensuring comprehensive data availability across multiple systems.
6. Overage
One of the key benefits of a capacity-based subscription is the ability to continue operations even if capacity limits are exceeded. If you exceed your purchased capacity, Qlik allows overage, meaning you can continue to use the platform without interruption. However, overage consumption is billed monthly, based on the additional usage.
Qlik Cloud’s capacity-based model uses specific value meters to measure usage and consumption and allows administrators to monitor consumption via the Qlik Cloud Administration activity center. This helps organizations track their capacity and ensure they stay within the limits of their subscriptions.
Each Qlik Cloud subscription level — Standard, Premium, or Enterprise—offers a different capacity for these metrics, with additional packs available for purchase.
You May Also Like: Top 3 Qlik Cloud Features That Will Power Up Your Business Intelligence
Standard Subscription
The Standard subscription is ideal for small teams or businesses that are just beginning their analytics journey. It offers foundational tools and features that provide robust analytics capabilities without unnecessary complexity.
- Full Qlik Sense analytic capabilities: Includes Insight Advisor, Alerting, and Notes for advanced analysis and reporting.
- Augmented Intelligence: Access to all of Qlik’s latest AI-driven capabilities, including Insight Suggestions to accelerate data-driven decision-making.
- Drag-and-drop App Creation: Create fully interactive apps with ease through Qlik’s intuitive interface.
- Personal Space: A dedicated space to create and share your own content with anyone.
- 5 Shared Workspaces: Facilitates group collaboration where team members can develop and share apps.
- Direct Data Connectivity to Over 40 Data Sources: Seamless connection to diverse data sources, including relational databases and SaaS platforms.
- Application Automation: Automate workflows with 1,000 automation runs per month included.
- AutoML: Access advanced machine learning capabilities with 1 deployed model included.
- Reporting Service: Includes 1,000 reports per month for detailed insights.
- Data Movement: Easily move data to Qlik Cloud from relational databases and SaaS sources.
- Full Users: Up to 20 Full Users included by default, allowing access to comprehensive Qlik capabilities.
- Qlik Cloud Analytics Standard Capacity Metrics:
- Store apps and data: up to 50 GB.
- Data for Analysis: 25 GB/year
- Concurrent Data Reloads: 10
- App Size: 5 GB in-memory
- Scheduled Data Reloads: 8 per app per day
- Teams that need essential, yet scalable analytics capabilities.
- Businesses looking to automate data tasks and share insights in real-time.
- Examples: Marketing agencies, small financial consulting firms, or IT service providers.
Premium Subscription
The Premium subscription is a step up from Standard, providing enhanced scalability, advanced AI tools, and multi-cloud capabilities for businesses with more sophisticated needs. It offers all the features available in Qlik Cloud Analytics Standard, along with several key upgrades that make it suitable for larger teams and more complex data environments.
- Increased data capacity: Supports larger datasets, making it ideal for organizations handling more complex analytics.
- Managed spaces: Provides additional governance and control over data sharing, ensuring teams can manage and secure their apps and data more effectively.
- Multiple tenants: Allows for multi-tenant environments, giving organizations more flexibility in managing separate workspaces or regions.
- Application Automation: Automate complex workflows with up to 5,000 automation runs per month.
- AutoML: Access advanced machine learning capabilities with 2 deployed models included for predictive analytics and decision-making.
- Full Qlik Sense analytic capabilities: Including Insight Advisor, Alerting, and Notes for sophisticated data exploration and collaboration.
- Augmented Intelligence: All the latest AI-driven capabilities, including Insight Suggestions.
- Drag-and-drop app creation: Build fully interactive apps without coding, empowering teams to create sophisticated visualizations.
- Direct data connectivity: Access to over 40 data sources, with support for SAP, mainframe sources, and relational databases for enhanced data movement to Qlik Cloud.
- Full Users: 20 Full Users included, with support for additional Full Users as needed.
- Basic Users: Up to 100,000 Basic Users (purchasable packs)
- Qlik Cloud Analytics Premium Capacity Metrics:
- Store apps and data up to the purchased amount.
- Open apps up to 10 GB in-memory.
- Data for Analysis: 50 GB/year (additional capacity available for purchase)
- 5,000 reports/month in automated reporting.
- Concurrent Data Reloads: 30
- App Size: 10 GB in-memory (up to 50 GB with Large App Support)
- Scheduled Data Reloads: 192 per app per day
- Mid-sized companies that require more data processing power and advanced analytics capabilities.
- Businesses needing predictive analytics, multi-cloud integration, and enterprise-level governance.
- Examples: Manufacturing firms, healthcare companies, or mid-sized retail businesses.
Enterprise Subscription
The Enterprise subscription is designed for organizations with large-scale data needs, offering unlimited scalability and robust governance features for highly complex use cases. It includes all the features available with Qlik Cloud Analytics Premium and Qlik Cloud Data Integration Premium.
- Qlik Cloud Enterprise Capacity Metrics:
- Store apps and data up to the purchased amount.
- Open apps up to 10 GB in-memory with additional large app support.
- Create managed spaces with full fine-grained access control.
- Access to advanced data integration, governance, and enterprise features.
- 25,000 reports/month in automated reporting.
- Data for Analysis: Starting at 500 GB/year (customizable with additional capacity packs)
- Concurrent Data Reloads: 30 (additional reloads available)
- App Size: 10 GB in-memory (up to 50 GB with Large App Support)
- Scheduled Data Reloads: 192 per app per day, with additional reloads available
- Large enterprises with complex data ecosystems and advanced governance needs.
- Companies handling large amounts of data across multiple departments, regions, or industries.
- Examples: Multinational corporations, large banks, or government agencies.
Qlik Sense Modernization in the Cloud
If you are already using Qlik Sense and want to enhance your BI solution with cloud capabilities, you have the option to partially or fully migrate to the Qlik Cloud Analytics platform.
Why businesses choose to migrate from Qlik Sense to Qlik Cloud Analytics:
- Fully Managed Cloud Infrastructure: Qlik Cloud Analytics eliminates the need to manage your own servers, hardware, and updates, as everything is hosted and managed by Qlik.
- Seamless Scalability: Effortlessly scale your analytics environment to meet growing business needs without worrying about infrastructure limitations.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Cloud-native features make it easier for teams to collaborate in real-time, with integrated tools for sharing insights and working together.
- Automatic Updates and Patches: Benefit from continuous automatic updates, ensuring you always have access to the latest features and security enhancements.
- Integration with Cloud Services: Qlik Cloud Analytics integrates more easily with other cloud-based services, allowing for streamlined workflows and data connections.
- Modern, Scalable Architecture: Ideal for businesses looking to adopt modern cloud solutions without the hassle of managing on-premise infrastructure.
The migration can be done through the user-based subscriptions Qlik Sense Business or Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS, allowing you to seamlessly extend your analytics environment into the cloud.
Qlik Sense Business
Qlik Sense Business is the entry-level subscription model designed for small to medium-sized teams that want to explore and collaborate on analytics. This user-based subscription model allows teams to create, share, and collaborate on analytics applications in a secure environment, with pricing based on the number of users.
- Shared Insights and Collaboration Tools: Teams can collaborate using five shared spaces, where they can build apps together and share insights with others. These spaces provide flexibility for small businesses to engage in collaborative decision-making.
- Drag-and-Drop Interface: It features a drag-and-drop app creation tool, allowing users to build fully interactive applications without extensive technical knowledge.
- Direct Data Connectivity: The subscription provides direct connectivity to over 40 data sources, making it easy to bring data into Qlik Sense for analysis.
- Basic AI & Augmented Intelligence: Users can leverage Qlik’s augmented intelligence capabilities to surface insights and make data-driven decisions, with Qlik offering suggestions based on patterns in the data.
- Automated Data Refreshes: Data refreshes can be scheduled to ensure that analytics remain up-to-date, and users always have access to the latest insights.
- Smaller Teams or Organizations: Qlik Sense Business is an excellent option for organizations looking to start their analytics journey. It allows for simple data analysis and visualizations, fostering data-driven decision-making.
- Departments or Project Teams: Ideal for departments within larger organizations or teams that work on specific projects and need an intuitive platform for analytics and collaboration.
Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS
Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS is a full SaaS deployment solution designed for larger businesses that require enterprise-level governance, advanced analytics, and limitless scalability. This subscription is ideal for organizations needing extensive data governance, security, and performance for their analytics applications.
- Enterprise-Level Governance: Advanced governance features, such as managed spaces and fine-grained access control, allow administrators to manage users and ensure security compliance across the organization.
- Unlimited Scalability: While Qlik Sense Business limits storage and the number of concurrent data reloads, Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS offers unlimited storage and the ability to handle large datasets without performance degradation.
- AI and Automation: Users have access to AutoML and Application Automation, enabling machine learning experiments and workflows to be easily integrated into their analytics. This tier includes 5,000 automation runs per month.
- Advanced Analytics Capabilities: With in-memory app sizes of up to 10 GB (expandable with large app support), organizations can analyze vast amounts of data, run predictive models, and integrate with legacy systems like SAP for enhanced data visibility.
- High Data Reload Capacity: Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS supports 192 reloads per day and 30 concurrent reloads, allowing for near real-time data updates.
- Larger Enterprises or Complex Organizations: Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS is built for large organizations that need advanced analytics, governance, and scalability.
- Highly Regulated Industries: For organizations operating in industries with strict regulatory requirements (e.g., finance or healthcare), the governance and security features provided by this tier ensure compliance and security.
What are the benefits of moving from servers to Qlik Cloud?
As we mentioned earlier, in today’s fast-paced world, data is everywhere, and leading organizations have already realized the importance of proper data analytics and business intelligence. However, having the right data analytics and business intelligence tools in place is only the first step toward success. To stay ahead of the competition, organizations must be able to make critical decisions in real-time, as the consequences of even one choice can determine the success or failure of an entire operation.
So how can you access your data in seconds, in a secure and easy way? Moving to cloud. The future of analytics lies in the cloud, and making the move to cloud computing can be a game-changer for your business. By embracing the cloud, businesses can gain a strategic advantage and rise to the top of their industry, leaving their competitors in the dust. The numbers say it all:
- All companies use at least one public or private cloud.
- By 2025, 85% of organizations will be “cloud first.”
- Over 60% of all corporate data is in cloud storage.
Still uncertain? Let’s outline the key advantages of transitioning to the cloud:
Scalability
Qlik Cloud provides flexible and scalable solutions that can quickly adapt to the changing needs of your business. With on-premise deployment, you have to invest in additional hardware and infrastructure to scale up or down. But with Qlik Cloud, you can easily adjust your subscription and resources as needed to meet your business demands. This flexibility is particularly important for businesses with fluctuating data volumes or seasonal demand.
Lower total cost of ownership
Which organization doesn’t like to save costs and work efficient? Migrating to Qlik Cloud can help you save money on hardware, maintenance, and staffing costs. With on-premise deployment, you need to purchase, install, and maintain hardware and software, which can be costly and time-consuming. In contrast, with Qlik Cloud, you don’t have to manage and maintain your own infrastructure. Qlik Cloud takes care of all infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, saving you time and money.
Improved accessibility
With Qlik Cloud, you can access your data and analytics from anywhere, at any time, on any device. This means you can work remotely or on-the-go, collaborate with colleagues more easily, and make informed decisions in real-time. Sure, we don’t encourage working on your days off but even if that is the case, Qlik Cloud also provides a mobile app that lets you access your data and analytics on your smartphone or tablet, so you can stay connected even when you’re away from your desk.
Enhanced security
Compliance and security are built in at the core to protect your most business-critical workloads and most sensitive data. Qlik Cloud provides advanced security features such as encryption, data masking, and access controls to ensure the safety and privacy of your data. With Qlik Cloud, you can be confident that your data is protected and secure.
Faster time to value
Qlik Cloud offers a fast and seamless migration process, allowing you to quickly and easily leverage the benefits of cloud-based analytics. With Qlik Cloud, you can get up and running in minutes without the need for complex infrastructure deployment or software installation. This means you can start seeing results and driving value for your business faster. Qlik Cloud also provides a user-friendly interface that makes creating and sharing visualizations, reports, and dashboards easy, enabling you to gain insights and make data-driven decisions quickly.
Transitioning to Qlik Cloud: Your Comprehensive Checklist
Following the myriad benefits of migrating from servers to Qlik Cloud, it’s essential to have a clear roadmap to ensure a smooth and efficient transition. While the move promises streamlined operations, improved accessibility, and reduced infrastructure costs, the migration process demands meticulous planning and a strategic approach. To aid businesses in navigating this transformative journey, we’ve curated a comprehensive checklist. This tool is designed to guide you step-by-step, ensuring you maximize the advantages of Qlik Cloud while minimizing potential migration challenges.
Companies that moved to the cloud and how that affected them?: Netflix, Amazon, and Coca-Cola
Although we’ve covered all the essential information regarding transferring to the cloud, it’s often helpful to complement theoretical knowledge with practical illustrations. With that in mind, we’ve compiled several instances of industry leaders who migrated to the cloud and enjoyed numerous advantages.
Netflix
Have you ever wondered how Netflix is able to suggest such personalized movie recommendations that seem almost tailor-made for you? Well, the secret lies in their move from on-premise servers to the cloud, which has enabled them to leverage advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms to analyze your viewing habits and preferences. So, the next time Netflix surprises you with an amazing movie suggestion, you’ll know exactly how they did it.
Amazon
Similarly, Amazon has gained a competitive advantage by leveraging data analytics and machine learning to provide personalized product recommendations to its customers. By moving its data analytics and business intelligence operations to the cloud, Amazon has been able to analyze massive amounts of data in real time, enabling them to offer tailored product recommendations based on browsing and purchasing history.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola the global beverage giant, has embraced the power of data analytics and business intelligence to get ahead of the competition. By migrating its data analytics and business intelligence operations to the cloud, Coca-Cola can now process vast amounts of data in real-time. Through the use of advanced machine learning algorithms, the company can analyze customer preferences and purchasing behavior from multiple sources, including social media. This data-driven approach has given Coca-Cola a deeper understanding of customer sentiment and trends, allowing them to develop new products and targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with their customers. With its innovative use of technology and data, Coca-Cola has firmly established itself as a leader in the beverage industry.
The Best Way to Migrate to Qlik Cloud – with B EYE as Your Partner
At B EYE, we understand that moving to the cloud can seem daunting—especially when it involves critical business data and systems. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to provide a cloud migration experience that is efficient, cost-effective, and “pain-free.”
Here’s why moving to Qlik Cloud with B EYE is the right choice:
You won’t lose any of your valuable data or analytics during the migration process. Qlik provides three years of support for your existing on-premise environment, so there’s no rush to overhaul your current setup. Even better, there’s no need to purchase additional Qlik licenses during this period.
Transitioning to Qlik Cloud with B EYE is more affordable than you think. By negotiating the best prices for your project, we’ll ensure a cost increase of only up to 30% compared to what you’re currently paying for licenses. Plus, we tailor our service packages to your specific needs, ensuring you get the most value for your investment.
- Seamless, Zero-Downtime Process
Our team of experts manages the entire migration from start to finish with minimal effort on your part, ensuring that your operations continue without any disruption. All you need to do is provide your requirements— we take care of the rest. Our comprehensive questionnaire helps us understand your unique business needs, so we can deliver a solution that’s tailored to you.
At B EYE, we understand that no two businesses are alike. That’s why we take the time to build tailored cloud solutions based on your specific requirements:
- Personalized Approach: We start by thoroughly understanding your needs via a detailed questionnaire. This allows us to create a solution that addresses your unique challenges, goals, and data needs.
- Hands-Off for Clients: After you provide your requirements, we handle everything else. From designing the architecture to migrating your data and optimizing the system, we make the entire process effortless for you. All you need to do is give us your specifications, and we’ll take it from there.
With B EYE, your migration to Qlik Cloud is simple, seamless, and fully supported every step of the way.
Take the Next Step in Your Cloud Migration and Data Modernization Process with B EYE
Ready to discover how B EYE can help you migrate to Qlik Cloud with confidence?
Book a free 1-hour consultation with our cloud experts today. Let’s discuss how we can make your transition effortless and optimized for success.
Contact us today at +1 888 564 1235 (or +359 2 493 0393 for Europe) or fill out our form below to receive a free consultation and a custom proposal.