Cloud-based applications have been mainstream since Salesforce.com brought customer relationship management to the masses in the 2000s. Cloud implementations had the advantage of providing faster time to provisioning and a significantly different cost structure from traditional software implementations based on on-premises installations. However, analytics and business intelligence in the cloud were slower to reach widespread acceptance. First, analytical and business intelligence applications have different data schema implementations from traditional operational applications. These applications can be uniquely configured for individual organizations and are often more difficult to implement on a mass basis than they might be for an operational system.

To determine the status of Analytics and Business Intelligence in the Cloud, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) embarked on an end-user research study to look at the current state of cloud-based analytics. For this research, EMA invited pre-qualified business stakeholders and information technology professionals to complete an extensive web-based survey. As part of the survey, 257 panelists responded to an invitation to provide their insights on cloud-based analytics and business intelligence strategies and implementation practices. To offer a neutral enterprise view, the respondent pool was also balanced. Business stakeholders represented 44% of respondents. Technologists were 56% of the panel. The survey was executed in November 2014 with respondents from around the world including North America and Europe.