Don’t be a BI Hobbyist

It’s already halfway through 2010, cloud computing is making its way predictably through the hype cycle, IT folks are thinking twice about buying UNIX servers, keeping old client/server applications alive, hosting their own email, building internal apps, etc.

Yet in the BI corner of the IT department, there is still a group of hobbyists who insist on building and maintaining their own internal infrastructure. High on their shopping list are databases, OLAP, ETL, analytics, cleansing, metadata, modeling frameworks, dashboard building tools, and lots and lots of hardware and time to assemble it all together. Just like the old days.

We ask these people to consider a different alternative. What if instead of focusing on building and operating your BI infrastructure you could focus on what your business people want – access to the data that drives their business, fast enough to change their business. Your business applications brethren made the switch. Even your Exchange admins are doing it.

Here’s a nice little graphic that speaks to how your world shifts if you stop being a BI hobbyist.

So really, why don’t you stop?