How To Build A Self-Service Data Analytics Stack Final - Google Docs Pdxule
How To Build A Self-Service Data Analytics Stack Final - Google Docs Pdxule
HowtoBuildaSelf-service
DataAnalyticsStack?
Introduction
In organizations where decisions are data-backed, operations don't fall short on
commitments;
a holistic
growth
trajectory
is
achieved,
meritocracy
prevails.
So,
it's
safe
to
say,
if
today's
global
market
players
fall
short
on
the
promise
of
attaining
sustained
growth, it’s because
they
are
trying
to
leverage
data-sharing
architecture
built
on
the
needs
of
yesteryear.
Quick
adaptability,
learning,
and
maintaining
a competitive
edge
arenowthenameofthegame.
In short, to take advantage of today's data-driven impulse, a state-of-the-art
self-service data analytics stack is a prerequisite. A self-service
data
analytics
stack
facilitates data democratization, empowers employees to make data-backed
decisions, and monitor overall company performance, financial health, HR's strength,
andmuchmore.
Thenewparadigmtobuildadataanalyticsstackgivespreferencetoself-service
softwareoverthelegacyones,benefitingorganizationsintwoways:
➔ Employees from any background can quickly transform data to make
data-driven decisions without knowing all about data science and advanced
analytics.
➔ Anyfunctionalpartinthedataanalyticsstackbecomesreplaceable.
WhatisSelf-serviceAnalytics?
Anicelyputdefinitionforself-serviceanalyticsisoftheGartner's—itdefines:
"Self-service analytics is a form of business intelligence (BI) in which
line-of-business professionals are enabled and encouraged to perform queries and
generatereportsontheirown."
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 2
With the world amassing more data than ever, the need to quantify data into
actionable thoughts has manifested the urgency to manipulate data in employees
from non-technology backgrounds, too. So far, the influx of SaaS startups providing
easy-to-use products has been stealing the
show.
Most
of
these
products
are
coined
under the common term as business intelligence (BI) tools or self-service analytics
tools.
Not
so
long
ago,
data
analytics
came
solely
under
the
domain
of
data
scientists.
But
now,
employees
from
across
business
functions
leverage
these
tools
to
manipulate
datatospotbusinessopportunities,risks,andnewoperatingavenuestotapinto.
On the one hand, experts hail the revolution self-service analytics has brought, but
on the other hand, critics have remained adamant about the need for a trained data
scientist. A self-service approach allows business users to seamlessly make
data-driven decisions. But, the job to correlate and manage data best suits a data
scientistbecausedatamisinterpretationcanleadtopotentiallydamagingchoices.
WhatisanAnalyticsStack?
A well-functioning analytics stack performs simple processes like data storage, data
transformation,
and
data
visualization.
An
analytics
stack
is
an
enabling
infrastructure
that
facilitates
smooth
data
availability
throughout
an
organization.
Termed
as
the
link
between
raw
data
and
business
intelligence
(BI),
the analytics stack is the backbone
oftoday'sdata-drivenbusinesses.
Cost-efficiency matters for organizations with growing data storage and analytics
needs. So, to address cost issues, processes and enablement challenges are to be
resolved first. The analytics stack provides an answer by adding the option to
customizeorinterchangecoreelementsoftheinfrastructure.
But, the crux of the debate is to build a new process flow without breaking
the
entire
operations structure. Also, bringing us an inch closer to the question: Should a
company invest in building infrastructure that authorizes losing control over data
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 3
processes to enable a data-driven work culture? But first, let's peer-review what
companiesgetwrongwhileemployinganalyticsstackcontents.
WhatisWrongwithToday'sDataAnalyticsStack?
Think of it this way: Today’s organizations have distributed operations which
means
they run on a collection of applications — Salesforce, Shopify, Workday, Slack, Jira,
Microsoft Excel, and many more. While these softwares continue to provide immense
value from a business perspective, analytics and progress reporting are not easy to
execute. Hence, legacy software like Microsoft Excel, Salesforce,
etc.,
start
showcasing
significant drawbacks in the form of siloed data.
Here,
the
missing
ability
to
work
and
picture data at scale is the biggest problem because organizations lack data
migration capabilities across applications that later help build tools for advanced
analyticsandcross-teamcollaboration.
Jetbrains survey shows, up to 75% of an analytics team's members end up working
in primary data handling jobs rather than BI, data science, or machine learning,
whicharetherealdeal.
Employees divided efforts, lack of data visibility begets lost productivity. Oft-times, to
build an enterprise-wide information coherence, data teams have to prioritize basic
data handling and management tasks like ETL. To leverage the economies of scale,
mitigating
above
mentioned
challenges
become
urgent.
Organizations
must
leverage
cloud solutions to advance
analytics
further
and
set
up
self-service
technologies
that
integrateprocessesseamlessly.
BuildingaModernSelf-serviceDataAnalyticsStack
Lately, we've witnessed technology evolving, tools developing rapidly — helping to
develop a compact-built data analytics stack. These advancements have fostered
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 4
self-service applications which are scalable, cloud-agnostic, and cost-effective.
Now,it'saboutchoosingtherightfit,justlikeajigsawpuzzle.
So, organizations need to assemble multiple self-service applications into a data
stack to build functional data operations, also known as the data pipeline. Here a
datastackperformsthreeprimaryroles:
➔ Collectingdatafrommultiplesourcesandingestingitintoastoragesystem,
➔ Cleaningandtransformingdataforbusinessuse,and
➔ MakinguseoftransformeddataforanalyticsoradvancedAIandMLbuilding.
Though
a stack's
architecture
differs
from
company
to
company,
commonalities
in
the
mainprocessesareshowninthediagrambelow.
1)DataIngestionandTransformation
Data collected from sources like HubSpot, Facebook ads, looker, Salesforce, etc., is
siloed. To leverage this data in an analytics project, first, you need to make data
available.
Here tools like Stich, Fivetran, or Hevo Data, come into the picture — they
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 5
help move data from source to target. These tools are popular because of their
competitivepricing,promptservices,andcloud-integratedofferings.
The second part of the problem is to produce a continuous flow of data. This
can
be
achieved through applications or services that generate new data continuously
leveraging a streaming API — or by pulling data
using
a receiver
application.
Apache
KafkaandAmazonKinesesareperfectforhandlingreal-timedatastreams.
After a successful data ingestion custom is set, it's advised to transform data before
storing. The transformation process helps create data that is more conducive for
analysis. The transformation process helps identify then rectify incomplete, messy,
or irrelevant data before the storage process begins. The approach to first
transforming
ingested
data
before
storing
it
is
known
as
ETL
(Extract,
Transform,
Load).
The
other
way
is
to
transform
raw
data
after
loading
it
into
a data
warehouse
which
is
known as ELT (Extract, Load, Transform). In fact, organizations sometimes prefer ELT
overETLbecauseELTincreasesoperationsflexibilityinthepipeline.
Here
is
the
list
of
must-have
self-service
data
collection,
ingestion,
and
transformation
tools:
➔ Apache Kafka: Apache Kafka is an open-source data ingestion tool that
provides a unified, low latency, high-throughput
platform
for
a continuous
data
feed.
It
has
a cluster-centric
design
which
acts
as
the
central
data
backbone
for
organizationsofallstrengthsandsizes.
➔ Amazon Kinesis: Amazon Kinesis is a cloud-based service that provides
real-time
data
processing.
Kinesis's
ability
to
capture
and
store
terabytes
of
data
per hour from multiple sources — like social media feed, financial transactions,
website engagements,
and
much
more
— sets
it
apart
from
the
rest
of
the
data
ingestionsolutionspresentonline.
➔ Hevo Data: Hevo data is a no-code data transformation tool. Its easy-to-use,
fully
managed
cloud-agnostic
solution
which
helps
you
run
transformation
code
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 6
over each event received through pipelines. It helps with common
transformation
scenarios
like
cleansing,
data
enrichment,
re-expression,
filtering,
normalization,andsuccessfulingestionoffailedevents.
➔ SAP Data Services: SAP Data Services is an
enterprise-wide
data
management
software
that
helps
you
transform
data
for
factual
business
insights
to
maximize
efficiency and streamline business processes. It offers seamless on-premise
deployment, easy maintenance, attractive UI, and ensures data quality and
integrationwithbestpractices.
2)DataWarehousing
An integral component of a self-service data analytics stack, data warehousing
solutions enable organizations to store data from multiple sources into a shared
repository. Data warehouses store and transform data in databases that are
easy
to
access. Traditionally, data marts were the go-to solution for data curation, but a big
shift came when cloud data warehousing
platforms
like
Snowflake,
AWS
Redshift,
and
Google BigQuery came into the picture. Cloud data warehouse solutions are perfect
becausetheyofferflexibilityintermsofoperationsandcosts.
Another
approach
is
to
store
data,
with
and
without
any
specific
purpose,
into
the
data
lakes. Not like a general data warehouse solution that stores data in a structured
format,
data
lakes
allow
any
kind
of
data
to
be
stored.
Amazon
S3
and
Azure
Blobs
are
somepopulardatalakes.
Hereisthelistofmust-haveself-servicedatawarehousingtools:
➔ Amazon Redshift: Redshift is a petabyte-scale data warehouse solution built
and designed for data scientists, data analysts, data administrators, and
software developers. Its parallel processing and compression algorithms allow
users to perform operations on billions of rows, reducing command execution
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 7
time significantly. Redshift is perfect for analyzing large quantities of data with
today'sbusinessintelligencetools.
➔ Google BigQuery:
An
enterprise-wide
data
warehouse
for
analytics,
BigQuery
is
a
fully managed, serverless data warehouse. It empowers today's data analysts
and data scientists to analyze data efficiently by creating a logical data
warehouse into columnar storage, compiling data from object storage and
spreadsheets. BigQuery is a powerful
solution
to
democratize
insights,
empower
businessdecisions,runanalytics,andanalyzepetabytesofSQLqueries.
➔ Snowflake: Snowflake is a cloud-agnostic data storage and analytics service
provider. It is a warehouse-as-a-solution designed to cater to today's
enterprises' needs. It has built, perfected, and resurrected the data warehouse
industry. Its features include managed infrastructure, on-the-fly scalability,
automatic clustering, and ease-of-integration with ODBC, JDBC, Javascript,
Python,Spark,R,andNode.js.
3)Ad-hocDataAnalysis
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 8
users
with
a visualized
format
of
data
in
the
form
of
a dashboard.
It
provides
end-users
with
insights
for
better
decision-making.
BI
tools
are
easy
to
deploy
and
do
not
require
involvement from IT teams. Once configured, users easily connect BI tools to a data
warehouseaftertheselectionofmodeleddata.
Here is the list of must-have self-service data analytics tools that are best suited
for
yourbusiness:
➔ Sisense: Sisene is a highly recommended tool for organizations that fancy fast
computation speed as the first priority to beget. Sisense's platform is designed
for
both
technical
and
non-technical
users.
It
provides
a drag-and-drop
feature,
interactivedashboardsforseamlesscollaborationamongstteams.
➔ Microsoft Power BI: Microsoft
BI
is
one
of
the
most
popular
BI
tools
for
a reason.
It
supports dozens of data sources, provides an easy way to create and share
reports, dashboards,
and
visualization.
With
easy
integration
of
dashboards
and
reports, users can also leverage its easy-to-build
automated
machine
learning
models.
➔ SAP BusinessObjects: SAP BusinessObjects is a BI application for
data
analysis,
reporting,
and
data
discovery.
BusinessObjects
is
built
for
less
technical
business
users but with an ability to perform complex computations, too. The best
advantage of having SAP BusinessObjects is its ability to quickly go back and
forthbetweenMicrosoftOfficeProducts—likeExcel.
➔ Tableau: Though lacking support for advanced SQL queries, Tableau provides
the best data visualization and analytics services to its customers. Tableau's
main advantage is its ability to create and share reports across desktop and
mobile devices. It provides a drag-and-drop dashboard and visualization
componentswiththeleastoversightintermsofperformanceoptimization.
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 9
WhyisSelf-serviceAnalyticsWorthInvestingIn?
Data-driven organizations are known for their quick-witted approach to
problem-solving.
They
know,
a solution that successfully mitigates legacy challenges
becomesthefacilitatorofchange.
Self-service analytics is the answer to all the legacy concerns which engender rigid
operations, lost business agility. Assisting non-technical staff to become truly
data-driven, maintaining overall
alignment
in
terms
of
decision
making
quality,
here's
howself-servinganalyticsbenefitsall:
➔ Quick, Reliable Decision-making: Without the legacy outbreaks that a
traditional BI system possesses, self-service analytics enables faster delivery
of
reports
and
critical
data
points.
Business
users
don't
have
to
wait
for
data
teams'
reports; instead,
they
can
run
queries
and
generate
correct
insights
themselves.
Significantly
reducing
friction
alongside
the
path
of
business
operations,
today's
self-service BI tools enable confident decision-making based upon available
data/information.
➔ Realigning Data teams' Priorities: One major benefit of having self-service
solutions
is
that
business
users
now
no
longer
have
to
rely
upon
data
teams,
i.e.,
IT staff and data scientists. Now data professionals can devote their time to
high-valueprojectsfocusedentirelyonproblem-solving.
➔ Data Democratization and Data Literacy: Encompassing the value system
placed
on
the
foundation
of
Data
governance,
self-service analytics facilitates
data democratization within an organization. Hence, employees manipulating
data every day and making business decisions should understand what data
means and how accurate it is. Data literacy promotes the notion that data
creators and consumers should collaborate and communicate in a common
language about business data. This makes data democratization and data
literacytheinfamousfoundationsforamoderndata-drivenenterprise.
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 10
Conclusion
Finding an excellent self-service analytics tool that fits your business requirements is
essential. Some applications support the semantic layer, and some perform data
modeling themselves. Some platforms are best suited for less technical users, and
others
provide
solutions
for
developers
having
extensive
coding
experience
— typically
usingSQL.
Moreover, moving from the dependencies from the siloed applications for basic
analytics to building your own self-service analytics stack can be a major task.
It is
suggested to start parsing through the business requirements first, then the
end-user and the type of results that are desired to be accomplished. Pricing and
licensing are the major factors to consider, too. Some offerings are free, and others
requireasubscriptionfee.
Through
this
e-book,
we
have
successfully
laid
out
guidelines
for
how
you
should
think
about
the
components
in
your
analytics
stack.
And,
on
a concluding
note:
It's
important
to
understand
if
your
company
is
just
starting
on
this
journey,
then
there
is
no
one
size
fits
all
solution
available.
And,
tools
that
work
for
your
use
cases
today
may
need
to
be
changed
as
your
operations
mature.
Hence,
your
analytics
infrastructure
will
gradually
evolve.
So,
regardless
of
the
stage
you're
at,
think carefully about the tools that fit well
withyourneedstodaybutarescalableorinterchangeableinthefuture.
Needmoreinformation?
For any further information or queries on how to build a Self-service Data Analytics
Stack,
you
can
reach
out
to
us
any
time!
Furthermore,
if
you
want
to
take
Hevo Data for
a spin and check why it is one of the best Automated/No-code Data Pipelines
available in the *market, you can check out our website. You will also be able to
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 11
leverage our Intercom-powered Live Chat service backed by our exceptional 24/7
supportteamthatwillhelpclarifyanyqueriesanddoubtsthatcrossyourmind.
Buildaelf-serviceDataAnalysisStack 12