Agility in the analytics space is possible.  Cloud and software as a service (SaaS) for BI, data warehousing, data movement, and point solution analytics allow organizations to more quickly and easily come to market with new analytics ideas.  There are currently many viable analytics options and offerings in this space…and they’re getting a lot of attention, so we’re seeing them mature rapidly.

Spin up new servers in seconds in conjunction with demand, utilize machine instances containing full-fledged BI applications so you have to install nothing, create full fail over and disaster recovery solutions in minutes…these are just a few of the realities of moving off premise.

The practice is not yet widespread, but is quickly gaining traction.  Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft seem best poised to deliver specifically in the cloud analytics space.  Most vendors even offer enough free (or cheap) tier pieces for decision makers to gauge value.  Spin something up, see what’s possible.