In terms of databases, there are DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata, and before that, there was Redbrick (which retired from the historical stage after being incorporated by IBM).
ETL tools such as Datastage and Powercenter are the mainstream. In addition, many companies also have their own ETL products, such as ETL server of SAS and Data Integrator of BO.
OLAP tools can also be subdivided into MOLAP (multidimensional OLAP) and ROLAP (relational OLAP). The former can choose Hyperion, Cognos and Microsoft products, while the latter has little choice. For example, Microstrategy may have a large market share at present, and it used to cooperate with Redbrick. In addition, there is a ROLAP tool called Metacube, which also withdrew from the market as early as 2000.
In the field of data mining products, there are two major manufacturers, SAS and SPSS, and IBM and Teradata also have their own mining tools. In addition, there are many choices in report server and front-end tools, among which Cognos, BO and Bouriaud are the mainstream.
Judging from these mainstream products, most of them are imported. There are also research and development of BI products in China, and there are not many complete BI solutions, but there are many kinds of products only for a certain link, and most of them are limited to ETL, front-end and data mining products. Recently, however, I learned a relatively complete BI software, Power-BI of Ovi Smart, which preset more than ten OLAP cubes based on server analysis services according to different business themes. There are mature and practical decision analysis models, not just reports. The biggest feature is that it can be used after installation, and it does not need to be realized, which is very labor-saving. Moreover, the price is relatively close to the people, and its reputation is not very loud, but it has a good reputation in the industry and has a certain market share among domestic small and medium-sized enterprises.
Judging from the product selection process of various users at present, the problems are mostly in the following aspects.
First, the tree attracts the wind, which can only reduce the cost of a single tool and ignore the overall cost. Some large enterprises spend a lot of money on IT construction and never care how much they invest in purchasing products. Everything is the best. However, more and more enterprises have to consider the cost and save as much as possible. In addition to databases and OLAP tools, I often wonder if I can save some money if I develop ETL and front-end myself.
But the problem is that if we only consider the cost of a single product and ignore the comprehensive cost of the project, it is likely to be plagued by difficult-to-maintain procedures or even completely overturned, and the cost is likely to be higher. For those big enterprises with deep pockets, even if they choose the best products in various fields, the combination may not be the best.
Second, the evaluation report is difficult to be objective. The person in charge of product selection in an enterprise usually asks the manufacturer to provide an evaluation report. The report should list several options, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, and finally draw a conclusion which one is most suitable for them.
If we take this report literally, it is not objective to know which aspect of a product is better and which aspect is not. For the manufacturer, this is a list. Of course, they will try their best to show the advantages of their products and avoid their own weaknesses. At the same time, for the person in charge of selection, maybe he has a good impression on a tool, or has a good relationship with a manufacturer, or even has further transactions. It is not easy to remain objective in this situation.
Select key points
In fact, when choosing these mainstream products, we all know that "there is no best, only the most suitable". What is the most appropriate? Aside from the behind-the-scenes factors mentioned above, there are actually three points to consider-product cost, developer's familiarity with this product, and whether there are similar cases.
First look at the cost. NCR, IBM and Oracle Bone Inscriptions have complete product lines, but they are expensive. Microsoft's products are cheaper, but if there is a lot of data, I'm afraid I can't use them, let alone open source products that don't cost money. Of course, the cost is not only determined by the price of the product itself, but also by the following personnel's study, project delay and low customer satisfaction. These hidden costs are difficult to calculate. When it comes to cost, you can't help but mention the BI model, because the model is the most expensive part of BI products. Domestic enterprises adopt a large number of independent development methods, which can avoid high costs, but cannot learn from advanced foreign business experience.
Look at the experience of personnel. People's learning curve is inevitable. Don't imagine that people can become masters as soon as they come into contact with a new product, and they can make a good architecture on the basis of unfamiliar products. In this respect, it is obvious that Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Microsoft have advantages, because there are many experienced people in these two products and they are easy to find. Of course, if your original business system used one of these products, you might as well continue to use it.
Second, the case is more important than the white paper. Now many BI vendors can provide all-round solutions and one-stop services. IBM, Oracle and SAS all claim to be such overall solution providers, that is to say, their product lines already include various tools such as database, OLAP and ETL. If you choose them directly, you don't have to worry about the choice of tools, but sometimes enterprises decide not to use a product for various reasons, so we should consider whether it is compatible or not. But if you look for this kind of information from the product white paper, you will find that it is beautiful and how it is perfectly "seamlessly" compatible with each other, but it is not. So, don't look at these words, look for similar cases in the same industry. If there are no cases in the same industry, look for other industry cases with similar data volume, similar business complexity and similar applications.