Are you weighing up moving to Qlik Cloud vs Qlik Sense Client Managed, and wondering what the difference is? Are they ultimately much the same, or are there key characteristics that set them apart? Is migrating from Qlik Sense Client Managed to the Qlik Cloud worthwhile?
Firstly, it’s important to note that there are two types of Qlik Sense: Qlik Sense Client Managed, which is an on-premises tool, and Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS, which is based in the cloud. While Qlik Cloud and both Qlik Sense tools are part of the same stable, there are important differences between them. Qlik Cloud is an end-to-end data integration and analytics cloud platform. Within this, Qlik Sense is a BI solution that helps you access and interpret your data in innovative and valuable ways.
Let’s unpack this a bit further.
What makes Qlik Cloud so special?
Qlik Cloud is Qlik’s most comprehensive solution. It allows you to close the gaps between data, insights and action, and to make use of your data and analytics in real-time, using AI-driven, collaborative and actionable tools.
One of the most critical characteristics that underpins Qlik Cloud is what Qlik calls Active Intelligence. Qlik knows that today’s data-driven demands can’t be met purely with BI (this might give you a hint as to how Qlik Cloud supersedes Qlik Sense Client Managed already). BI tools depend on preconfigured, curated, historical data sets that aren’t dynamic enough for businesses to respond to in the moment.
Through Active Intelligence, however, Qlik Cloud enables you to access and act on data in real-time, which is critical if you’re going to remain relevant and competitive in the digital economy. With up-to-the-minute information available in the palm of your hand, you can respond immediately to issues and opportunities alike, and so ensure your business’s long-term sustainability and success.
Here are a few other defining features you should be aware of:
1) AutoML
An abbreviation for automated machine learning, AutoML encompasses the tools and processes that help you to build, train, deploy and serve custom ML models. Using ML in your business has a range of applications and many advantages. It can help you to analyse your historic data, find relevant patterns, and make informative predictions that you can use in your future decions.
Whether you’re an experienced or novice ML developer, AutoML produces accurate and informative data quicker and simpler than hand-coded models. This eliminates the need for time-consuming, cumbersome and error-prone processes so that you can streamline your workflow and focus on the work that has a material impact on your business.
AutoML is borne out in Qlik Cloud’s subscription reports and alerts, which we go into in a bit more detail below.
2)Subscription reports
One of the most impressive aspects of Qlik Cloud is its analytics and reporting functionality. Qlik Cloud makes real-time information from a range of data sources available to you in easy and accessible ways that will transform how you manage your business.
Subscription reports enable you to schedule recurring emails that contain a PDF summary of the sheets or charts you would like to view. This helps you keep track only of the data relevant to your line of work and receive it, direct to your inbox, at a set time every day. Imagine having an immediate sense of your overnight orders from the moment you sit at your desk — what a dream.
3)Application Automation + Application Automation templates
Application Automation provides a no-code visual interface that helps you build automated analytics and data workflows. Whether you want to collect information from one application and pass it to another, or establish a holistic pipeline from raw data through to the active intelligence we described above, Application Automation can help.
But that’s not where it ends. Qlik Cloud also offers Application Automation templates: a wide range of pre-built, Qlik-curated automations. They’re simple to configure, quick to implement and easy to customise. And they’ll ultimately improve developer productivity and streamline your processes.
The list of templates currently available includes templates for analytics data pipelines, alerting, master item management, change control, and app-to-app integration.
4)Data alerting
In line with Qlik Cloud’s focus on relevant, real-time, actionable insights, its data alerting functionality is designed to make you aware of any abnormalities and outliers in your data quickly and easily. You don’t even need to open the app.
Once you set the relevant conditions, an alert will immediately be sent to you, together with a useful preview of the data, when these conditions are met.
So, how is Qlik Sense different?
Whether you’re using Qlik Sense Client Managed or Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS, there’s no doubting their value and relevance, and they might be perfect for your business. Qlik Sense offers industry-leading analytics functionality, as well as impressive visualisation, dashboarding, reporting and mobility features. It supports the full range of analytics use cases and is powered by AI.
It is, however, still a BI tool, rather than the end-to-end solution that Qlik Cloud offers, and is typically both an on-premises and client-managed platform. Some users might find that this limits the functionality they have access to (we go into this in a bit more detail below), and that they don’t necessarily have all the resources they need.
For those who want more, Qlik Cloud offers the full suite of Qlik Sense offerings on a multi-cloud platform and includes an advanced data toolkit comprising Application Automation, Qlik Forts, and AutoML, among other functionalities.
Why are features released on Qlik Cloud not available in Qlik Sense Client Managed?
At Tahola, we get this question regularly from our clients, and we understand why — seeing new features deployed on one product and not another can be a frustrating and disheartening experience.
But it’s important to remember that, when it comes to Qlik Cloud and Qlik Sense, you’re not comparing apples with apples, and updates that apply to one won’t necessarily apply to the other. While Qlik Sense Client Managed is an on-premises analytics product, Qlik Cloud is a data platform.
This gives it multiple advantages, particularly in terms of upgrade deployment. While Qlik Cloud’s superior infrastructure eliminates the need for manual upgrades and maintenance, providing seamless and immediate improvements every week, Qlik Sense Client Managed is only updated four times a year.
Qlik also can’t cater for all the individual intricacies and variations in client-managed environments. Cloud and SaaS platforms, on the other hand, tend to be more standardised and easier to amend.
Is it worth migrating to Qlik Cloud?
It depends on what you need. Every business is different. While some companies will find everything they need in Qlik Sense, others might enjoy taking advantage of the many benefits offered by Qlik Cloud.
The only way to know for sure? Speak to an expert. Contact Tahola today, and we’ll help you to implement the Qlik solution that’s right for you.