Imagine making data-driven decisions with a comprehensive business intelligence solution at your fingertips. Enter Oracle Analytics Cloud, a robust platform designed to maximize your organization’s business intelligence by providing a wide range of features and capabilities.

Key Takeaways

  • Oracle Analytics Cloud provides powerful self-service data exploration, advanced analytics with machine learning, and secure cloud infrastructure capabilities.
  • Oracle Analytics Cloud is a robust platform integrating multiple data sources for personalized data visualizations and reports.
  • Tailored solutions are available to meet the diverse needs of business users such as analysts, executives & IT professionals.

Exploring Oracle Analytics Cloud: A Complete Overview

Illustration of a comprehensive business intelligence platform

Oracle Analytics Cloud, or OAC, is a versatile analytics platform combining data preparation, business intelligence, and machine learning. It’s a complete system with an intelligent Oracle Analytics Server, offering components that can be hosted in the cloud or run locally on a device.

However, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Despite its impressive features, a challenge arises in the lack of application-ready dashboards for enterprise applications, such as SAP, Salesforce, and Oracle’s own enterprise applications, potentially requiring data engineers and analysts to create personalized dashboards on their own.

Nevertheless, the benefits of OAC outweigh its challenges, enabling organizations across industries to efficiently fulfill compliance requirements, reduce overall business risk, and improve data collaboration among teams.

Key Features of Oracle Analytics Cloud

The strength of the Oracle Analytics platform is rooted in its key features. The three pillars that make OAC suitable for multiple analytics projects are self-service data discovery, advanced analytics with machine learning, and secure cloud infrastructure.

Here’s a closer look at each critical feature of OAC for business users:

Self-Service Data Discovery

OAC’s self-service data discovery feature is revolutionary in the world of modern data management solutions, allowing users to explore and analyze data without technical expertise or IT assistance. This feature intends to empower users to take control of their own experience, promoting data analysis as an inclusive process instead of an exclusive one.

The ease of use of OAC’s self-service data discovery sets it apart. It offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive tools that enable users to visually interpret data, create interactive dashboards, and derive insights.

The Oracle Analytics platform also offers cutting-edge analytics capabilities, such as machine learning and natural language processing, to augment the data discovery process and reveal concealed patterns and trends.

Advanced Analytics with Machine Learning

Illustration of advanced analytics with machine learning in Oracle Analytics Cloud

Machine learning is not an idea of the future anymore. It’s present now and is revolutionizing our approach towards efficient data visualization and analysis. OAC leverages intelligent machine learning algorithms to deliver advanced analytics and predictive insights, making it a complete platform for business intelligence.

From Decision Trees to Logistic Regression, OAC employs various machine learning algorithms for advanced analytics. These algorithms enable OAC to provide a variety of predictive insights, including forecasting future trends, identifying customer churn, and predicting sales and revenue. Thus, machine learning enhances data analysis in OAC by offering more accurate and insightful outcomes.

Secure Cloud Infrastructure

Illustration of secure cloud infrastructure in Oracle Analytics Cloud

A platform as robust as OAC demands an equally secure infrastructure. OAC is constructed on a secure cloud infrastructure that guarantees data protection and adherence to industry standards.

The infrastructure incorporates multiple security features, including access management, security services, and secure best practices. It implements data-level security and integrates with Oracle Identity Cloud Service to ensure proper data preparation and protection.

The OAC solution also complies with industry standards such as ISO 27001 and ISO 27701, meaning the security of OAC is not just an afterthought but a core element of the platform.

The Power of Integration: Connecting Multiple Data Sources

Data is the fuel that drives OAC. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) integration services come in handy for data integration with cloud platforms, and integrating third-party applications with OAC further enhances its utility.

To ensure smooth operation and efficient data flow, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and OAC integrates with a variety of data sources, including:

  • Oracle databases
  • Non-Oracle databases
  • Cloud platforms
  • Third-party applications

Personalized Visualization and Reporting

Visual data is often easier to comprehend than raw, numerical data. Acknowledging this, OAC enables users to create personalized data visualizations and reports to derive insights from their data and make well-informed decisions.

The tools provided for personalized data visualization include:

  • Data Visualization
  • Narrative Reporting
  • Mobile App (for your mobile device)
  • Advanced Analytics

Users can customize data visualizations to suit their specific requirements, and the reporting feature provides comprehensive and customizable reports to analyze data and gain insights. The freedom to customize visualizations and reports enhances the user’s ability to understand and interpret data.

Managing Your Analytics Environment with Oracle Analytics Cloud

Managing an analytics environment could be complex without the right tools and resources to support your core data flow. The Oracle Analytics platform equips users with tools for effective data preparation, team collaboration, and productivity-boosting automation, making the data management process easier.

Efficient Data Preparation and Enrichment

Data preparation and enrichment is a pivotal step in any data analysis process. OAC enhances the efficacy of data preparation through its in-memory engine, which can increase query performance significantly.

List aggregation in data flows effectively transforms and prepares data. Oracle Analytics Cloud also provides augmented services to support data preparation and enrichment, which includes custom knowledge support.

OAC offers the following benefits for data preparation and enrichment:

  • Centralized administration
  • Self-service capabilities
  • Advanced analytics
  • Support for Regular Expressions

Collaboration Across Teams

Collaboration is a fundamental element for successful data analysis. Oracle Analytics Cloud promotes teamwork by providing a centralized data analysis and reporting platform. It allows team members to securely access and share data, dashboards, and reports, enabling real-time collaboration and decision-making.

OAC facilitates real-time collaboration for teams by offering intelligent features enabling teams to collaborate on data analysis and share insights in real-time. This improves communication and collaboration within the team. It’s possible to edit and annotate reports collaboratively in OAC, adding another layer of collaboration and connection for teams and other key stakeholders.

Enhancing Productivity with Automation

In the fast-paced modern enterprise landscape, time is a precious resource. Oracle Analytics Cloud provides various automation features to enhance productivity and efficiency, including:

  • Data ingestion and data modeling capabilities, with a focus on semantic model creation
  • Process monitoring and execution
  • A modern user experience
  • A rules engine

Oracle Analytics Cloud leverages Terraform to create and maintain such environments. This enables the provisioning of multiple Oracle Analytics Cloud environments and automated processes. Oracle Analytics Cloud can also be set up on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) with a five-step process.

Tailored Solutions for Every Business User

It’s no secret that business users have diverse needs depending on where they fall in the organizational food chain or their expertise level. Acknowledging this diversity, Oracle Analytics Cloud provides tailored solutions for various business users like analysts, executives, and IT professionals.

On the one hand, company executives can benefit from a comprehensive overview of their business’s financial performance. For IT professionals, OAC offers a scalable and secure public cloud service within a data center.

Analysts can leverage the following features of Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC):

  • Advanced analytics capabilities
  • Visual experience enhancements
  • Improved Home Page Search
  • Capabilities to enhance analytic skills

Wrapping Things Up

Oracle Analytics Cloud is a robust, comprehensive business intelligence solution offering many features and core capabilities, from self-service data discovery and advanced analytics with machine learning to secure cloud infrastructure.

Its ability to integrate with multiple data sources and provide personalized visualization and reporting makes it a versatile tool for data-driven decision-making and improved enterprise efficiency across business units.

The OAC platform also offers tailored solutions for different business users and is available in two editions, Enterprise and Professional, catering to various organizations’ specific needs and requirements. Oracle Analytics Cloud is more than just a tool; it’s a business intelligence powerhouse that can transform how companies view and analyze data.

How Can We Help?

Whether you need help implementing Oracle Cloud HCM solutions for the first time, additional support navigating complex features across your Oracle Analytics Server, or just an extra hand getting started on your journey with Oracle, Surety Systems is here to help.

Our senior-level Oracle consultant team has the knowledge, skills, and experience to handle your most critical project needs and maximize data preparation and management activities in the long run, further enhancing productivity and efficiency.

Contact Us

Interested in learning more about Oracle Cloud Analytics functionality or where our team of Oracle consultants can fit in your organization? Ready to get started on an Oracle implementation or integration project with our team?

Contact us today for more information!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Oracle Analytics Cloud?

Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) is a fully managed, cloud-based BI and analytics platform from Oracle that enables users to ask questions about their data from any device. It provides a single, complete platform for business users and analysts.

Is Oracle Analytics Cloud a PaaS?

Yes, Oracle Analytics Cloud is a PaaS as it is delivered in a PaaS model. The OAC Admin has control over deploying patches to both the OAC software and the servers running the OAC services in the Oracle Cloud.

What is the difference between Oracle OAC and FAW?

Oracle Analytics Cloud is designed to process data efficiently; however, it may have difficulty with larger datasets compared to FAW, which focuses on big data processing and excels at handling vast volumes of data in real-time.

What are the key benefits of Oracle Analytics Cloud?

Oracle Analytics Cloud provides powerful data preparation and management capabilities through intelligent self-service data discovery, advanced analytics and machine learning, and secure cloud infrastructure.

What are the data sources compatible with Oracle Analytics Cloud?

Oracle Analytics Cloud is compatible with various data sources, including Oracle and non-Oracle databases, cloud platforms, and third-party applications.