The 4 Major Players in Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, 2019

Analytics and business intelligence platforms come in a variety of shapes and sizes to meet the ever-changing needs of organizations and their increasingly complex big data environments. Businesses require data solutions that can serve any number of different use cases, and in the case of analytics and BI, can range from data discovery to predictive analytics. There are both small and large providers that offer software to help these companies with both niche and common challenges, though choosing the vendor(s) that are right for your specific environment can be a daunting task.

The following providers have recently been named leaders in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. The report, which highlights and scores the top products in the industry, features these four tools as being cornerstones in the space. Each provider’s market share and product portfolios differ, which is what makes them interesting to the wider audience of data consumers. Niche and emerging vendors can only hope to replicate the kind of market presence that these providers have earned over a sustained period of time. Here we provide a brief blurb about each and links to product details so you can learn more.

Microsoft is one of a handful of major players in enterprise BI and analytics. The company’s flagship platform, Power BI, is cloud-based and delivered on the Azure Cloud. On-prem capabilities also exist for individual users or when power users are authoring complex data mashups using in-house data sources. Power BI is unique because it enables users to do data preparation, data discovery, and dashboards with the design tool. The platform integrates with Excel and Office 365, and has an active user community that extends its capabilities.

Tableau offers an expansive visual BI and analytics platform, and is widely regarded as the major player in the marketplace. The company’s analytic software portfolio is available through three main channels: Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, and Tableau Online. Tableau connects to hundreds of data sources and is available on-prem or in the cloud. The vendor also offers embedded analytic capabilities, and users can visualize and share data with Tableau Public. The company recently added subscription pricing to its entire product line.

Qlik offers a broad spectrum of BI and analytics tools, which is headlined by the company’s flagship offering, Qlik Sense. The solution enables organizations to combine all their data sources into a single view. The Qlik Analytics Platform allows users to develop, extend and embed visual analytics in existing applications and portals. Embedded functionality is done within a common governance and security framework. Users can build and embed Qlik as simple mashups or integrate within applications, information services or IoT platforms.

ThoughtSpot offers an artificial intelligence-driven analytics platform that features what the company dubs the world’s first relational search engine. The tool combines relational search with a custom-built, in-memory relational data cache to speed up queries that are run over many lines of data. ThoughtSpot connects with any on-prem, cloud, big data, or desktop data source. The tool is heavily influenced by AI and automation, and includes a distributed cluster manager that supports existing ETL solutions.