Looker is a cloud-based Business Intelligence (BI) platform purchased by Google in 2019. Designed to offer insights and analytics, its strength lies in the powerful data modeling layer. This layer emphasizes a “single source of truth” model, ensuring accurate metric readings by consolidating information from various sources onto one dashboard.

Looker’s data modeling allows users to define intricate information and create reusable models. These can be used throughout the platform, ensuring data consistency and accuracy. This approach streamlines data exploration, giving users confidence in the displayed data.

The 23.4 release introduced the Looker Studio Connector and Connected Sheets for all Looker-hosted instances. This enhancement allows users to access and analyze Looker-modeled data, expanding the platform’s capabilities. Another feature, the Performant Field Picker Labs, offers refined search options for large Explore field pickers.

• Data Exploration and Discovery: Looker allows users to explore and discover data in real-time using an intuitive interface that requires no SQL knowledge.

• Customizable Dashboards: Users can create and share interactive, customizable dashboards that offer a comprehensive view of business metrics.

• Integrated Workflow: Looker integrates seamlessly with other tools, enabling users to embed insights directly into business workflows and applications.

• Data Modeling Layer: The LookML modeling layer enables users to define business logic centrally, ensuring consistency across all analytics.

• Collaborative Data Analytics: Looker supports collaboration by allowing users to share data insights with team members through links, dashboards, or scheduled reports.

• Real-Time Data Insights: Looker provides real-time insights, enabling businesses to act on the most current data available.

• Embedded Analytics: Organizations can embed Looker’s analytics capabilities into their own applications to offer data-driven experiences.

• Robust Security and Compliance: Looker offers enterprise-grade security features and compliance certifications, ensuring that data remains safe and secure.

Tableau is a data visualization and business intelligence (BI) tool designed to help users interpret and understand their data.

Through its interface, users can create visual representations like dashboards, reports, and charts from raw data. The software allows for data integration from various sources, from databases to cloud services. Over time, Tableau has been adopted by many due to its straightforward features and ability to handle complex data sets. With each release, including the 2023.1 update, Tableau introduces modifications and improvements, reflecting feedback and the changing landscape of data analysis.

• Data Visualization: Tableau excels in creating powerful, interactive visualizations that help users understand complex data intuitively.
• Drag-and-Drop Interface: The drag-and-drop interface allows users to easily create visualizations and dashboards without the need for advanced technical skills.
• Data Blending: Tableau enables users to combine data from multiple sources into a single view, providing a holistic perspective.
• Real-Time Data Analysis: Users can connect to live data sources and perform real-time analysis to make timely decisions.
• Dashboard Sharing and Collaboration: Tableau allows users to share dashboards and collaborate with others, enhancing teamwork and decision-making.
• Mobile-Friendly Dashboards: Dashboards in Tableau are optimized for mobile devices, ensuring accessibility and usability on the go.
• Advanced Analytics and Calculations: Tableau offers built-in tools for performing advanced analytics, such as trend analysis, forecasting, and statistical modeling.
• Integration with Other Tools: Tableau integrates with a wide range of data sources and tools, including cloud services, databases, and spreadsheets, making it versatile and adaptable.

Alteryx is your go-to platform for simplifying complex data workflows. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes tasks like data blending, cleansing, and analysis accessible to both technical and non-technical users. 

For small businesses up to large enterprises, Alteryx empowers your analysts with advanced analytics capabilities without requiring extensive coding knowledge. You can take advantage of a wide range of data sources and benefit from extensive training resources through Alteryx Academy. For automating repetitive tasks and boosting your data analysis capabilities, Alteryx offers a powerful and user-friendly solution.

Self-service data analytics: Quick and precise insights delivery with an end-to-end platform for data discovery, blending, and analysis.

Drag-and-drop workflow: Easy creation and alteration of analytical workflows through an intuitive user interface.

Predictive analytics: With more than 60 pre-built tools, Alteryx allows the harnessing of advanced analytics for spatial and statistical analysis and predictive modeling without any coding required.

Data connectors: Native data connectors to numerous sources such as SQL, Oracle, Excel, and Access and supports cloud-based data from AWS, Google Analytics, Salesforce, etc.

Free trial available

Designer Cloud: Starting at $4,950/user/year

Designer Desktop: $5,195/user/year

Azure Machine Learning, part of the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, offers a secure and scalable platform for developing and deploying machine learning models.

It integrates with various Azure services and supports multiple development environments, providing you with flexibility in model building and deployment. Advanced tools for automated machine learning, data labeling, and model interpretability make Azure Machine Learning comprehensive for your AI projects. If your enterprise prioritizes data privacy and needs a reliable environment for developing sophisticated machine learning applications, this platform is an excellent choice.

Enterprise-grade MLOps: Build, deploy, and manage machine learning models efficiently at scale, fostering robust operationalization and lifecycle management of your models.

Automated machine learning: Makes the selection and tuning of machine learning models hassle-free, increasing productivity and reducing the possibility of errors.

On-premises, multi-cloud, and at-the-edge deployment: Flexibility to deploy your machine learning models wherever you need them.

Explainability and fairness of models: Includes built-in features for model interpretability and fairness.

Security and compliance: Provides advanced security controls and privacy-preserving features, including differential privacy and confidential computing.

Integrated notebooks: Offers Jupyter Notebooks as part of the service.

Studio

• Free plan: Available, no Azure subscription required.
• Standard: $9.99/user/month plus $1 per studio experimentation hour; Azure subscription required. Unlimited modules and storage, experiments can last up to 7 days, with a maximum of 24 hours per module.

Production Web API

• Web API Dev/Test: Free. Includes 1000 transactions per month, 2 compute hours, and 2 associated web services.
• Web API Standard S1: $100.13/user/month, includes 100,000 transactions and 25 compute hours per month. Overage rates are $0.50 per 1,000 transactions and $2 per API compute hour.
• Web API Standard S2: $1,000.06/user/month; includes 2,000,000 transactions and 500 compute hours per month. Overage rates are $0.25 per 1,000 transactions and $1.50 per API compute hour.
• Web API Standard S3: $9,999.98/user/month; includes 50,000,000 transactions and 12,500 compute hours per month. Overage rates are $0.10 per 1,000 transactions and $1 per API compute hour.

SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) offers a comprehensive solution for managing your supply chain, providing advanced tools for demand planning, inventory optimization, and sales and operations planning. 

It processes real-time data and uses predictive analytics to deliver accurate forecasts and scenario planning. SAP IBP’s collaboration features facilitate coordination across your business units, improving overall supply chain efficiency. If you are seeking to optimize your supply chain operations with extensive customization options and scalability, SAP IBP meets the needs of businesses of all sizes, enhancing your supply chain performance through data-driven insights.

Also read: Best Embedded Analytics Tools 2024

Scenario planning: Enables users to perform ‘what-if’ analysis to predict the impact of different scenarios.

Demand sensing: Utilizes short-term historical data to improve forecast accuracy.

Supply chain control tower: Offers end-to-end visibility and monitoring of the entire supply chain.

Unified data model: Maintains a single data model for enhanced collaboration and consistency across functions.

Integrated with SAP ERP: Seamlessly connects with SAP ERP and S/4HANA for comprehensive planning and execution.

Inventory optimization: Helps in optimizing inventory levels to balance service levels and costs.

Order-based planning: Supports planning at the order level for precise supply chain management.

SAP IBP Starter Edition:

• Contract Duration: 3 months
• Pricing: $31,260.00
• Includes:
  • SAP Cloud Integration Services
  • SAP Cloud Identity Services
  • SAP IBP modules for demand, inventory, response and supply, sales and operations, and Supply Chain Control Tower
• User Limit: Up to 10 concurrent users
• Data Limit: Up to 50 million total planning points

More Specific Versions of SAP IBP:

• There are diffent tiers depending on specific needs
• Contract Duration: Customizable based on business needs
• Pricing: Subscription-based, with detailed pricing available upon request
• Includes: All features of the Starter edition plus additional functionalities and higher data limits
• User Limit: Scalable based on subscription tier
• Support: Premium consulting and integration services available

Looker, part of Google Cloud, specializes in data modeling capabilities using its proprietary LookML language. 

This platform is ideal if your team needs scalable, centralized business metrics to enhance data governance. Looker processes data within the database itself, maintaining high performance even with large datasets. If you require comprehensive data modeling, Looker integrates smoothly with various SQL databases and other data sources. Its ability to create detailed visualizations and dashboards supports your organization in making strategic, informed decisions.

LookML data modeling: Looker’s proprietary language, LookML, offers a code-based approach to defining business logic and data relationships, providing granular control over how data is queried and visualized.

Data blocks: Pre-modeled pieces of business logic or whole datasets from third-party sources that can be natively integrated into your existing models.

Looker actions: Allows users to take meaningful actions on insights directly from within Looker, like changing data in your database, sending an email, or creating a task in project management software.

Embedded analytics: Looker’s Powered by Looker platform enables you to embed real-time analytics and data visualizations directly into your workflows, applications, or portals.

Viewer User: $30/user/month

Standard User: $60/user/month

Developer User: $125/user/month

Tableau transforms complex data into clear, comprehensible visual narratives. Its drag-and-drop interface is designed for users of all technical levels, making it easy to create a wide array of visualizations, from simple charts to intricate maps. 

If you need to present data visually in an engaging and understandable way, Tableau should be at the top of your list. The platform supports real-time analytics and mobile-ready dashboards, providing you with immediate access to insights. Collaboration tools make it easier for your teams to work together on data projects, improving overall efficiency and understanding.

• Data blending: Enables users to blend data from multiple sources, providing a unified view of multiple datasets.
• Drag-and-drop interface: Users can create complex visualizations using a simple drag-and-drop mechanism.
• Real-time data analysis: Real-time data analysis allows for up-to-the-minute business insights and decision making.
• Interactive dashboards: Lets users drill down into charts and graphs for more detail.
• Tableau Public: A free service that allows users to publish data visualizations to the web. These can be embedded into webpages and blogs, shared via social media or email, and made available for download for other users.
• Mobile-ready dashboards: Dashboards are optimized for tablets and smartphones, enabling users to access their data anytime, anywhere.

Free plan available

Tableau Creator: $75/user/month

Add-ons:

• Tableau Viewer: $15/user/month
• Tableau Explorer: $42/user/month

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse is designed to streamline data management processes, providing an efficient and automated platform for your analytics needs. As the industry’s first self-driving database, it runs natively on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), automating tasks such as patching, provisioning, tuning, and scaling without the need for human intervention. This platform is particularly suited for enterprises looking to manage vast amounts of data with minimal manual effort, offering high performance and scalability.

You can benefit from its ability to integrate with various cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, providing expansive multicloud functionality. The platform supports real-time analytics and advanced machine learning models through its built-in Oracle Machine Learning services, which accelerate model creation and deployment. Additionally, Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse’s Exadata infrastructure offers high-performance storage at reduced costs, making it a cost-effective solution for large-scale data operations.

Ideal for businesses that need to consolidate data from multiple sources into a single, query-optimized data store, Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse provides robust support for data integration and analysis. With features like automatic data preparation, AutoML for automated model development, and graph analytics for managing complex data relationships, this platform enhances your ability to derive meaningful insights from your data. For organizations looking to modernize their data architecture and improve data accessibility and performance, Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse is a powerful choice.

In-database machine learning: Offers in-database machine learning capabilities, allowing users to build and deploy models without moving data​.

Natural language queries: Enables natural language querying with AI, letting users interact with data without needing SQL knowledge​​.

Vector search: Supports vector search for identifying similar data across documents, images, and other unstructured data types​​.

Graph analytics: Includes advanced graph analytics features for uncovering relationships within complex data sets​​.

Spatial features: Provides comprehensive spatial data processing for large-scale location intelligence and geospatial applications​.

Automated threat detection: Uses AI-driven automated threat detection and remediation to enhance data security​.

1. Compute Costs (ECPU Billing Model):
   • Serverless:
     • ECPU per hour: Pricing starts at approximately $0.1125 per ECPU hour.
   • Dedicated Infrastructure:
     • Exadata Storage per ECPU: Costs vary based on the specific configuration and usage, typically higher than serverless options.
2. Storage Costs:
   • Serverless:
     • Database Storage: Charged per terabyte (TB) per month.
     • Backup Storage: Charged separately per terabyte (TB) per month.
   • Dedicated Infrastructure:
     • Database Storage and Backup Storage: Provisioned in TB increments, with specific pricing based on configuration.
3. Minimum Term:
   • For dedicated infrastructure deployments, the minimum subscription term is 48 hours.

Additional Notes:

• BYOL (Bring Your Own License): Users with existing Oracle licenses can benefit from reduced pricing under the BYOL model.
• Cost Estimator Tool: Oracle provides an online cost estimator tool to help users calculate their expected monthly expenses based on their specific usage requirements.

RapidMiner Studio is a premier platform for data mining and predictive analytics. It is suitable for both data scientists and business users, offering extensive tools for data preparation, model building, and validation. 

If your organization needs to perform advanced data analysis and predictive modeling, RapidMiner’s integration capabilities with various data sources and third-party applications enhance its versatility. The platform’s collaborative features allow your teams to share workflows and insights effectively, driving better business outcomes.

Automated data science: Simplifies complex data transformation, model selection, and validation tasks.

Multi-threaded execution: Capitalizing on your machine’s computational capabilities, RapidMiner offers multi-threaded execution for faster data processing and model building.

Rich data preprocessing tools: Provides a vast range of preprocessing operators, allowing users to clean, transform, and enrich their data efficiently.

Predictive modeling: Supports numerous machine learning algorithms, enabling users to create advanced predictive models.

Visual workflow designer: Drag-and-drop visual interface lets users design complex data workflows with ease, minimizing the need for code.

Professional: $7,500/user/month

Enterprise: $15,000/user/month

AI Hub: $54,000/user/month

With IBM Decision Optimization, you can tackle complex operational challenges across various sectors, from supply chain management to resource allocation. 

Leveraging advanced algorithms and CPLEX solvers integrated with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, this platform turns intricate data sets into actionable insights. If you run a large enterprise that requires sophisticated scenario analysis and what-if modeling to optimize your operations, IBM Decision Optimization is especially beneficial. By integrating with IBM Watson Studio, you can merge machine learning models with optimization techniques, enhancing your operational efficiency and accuracy.

Also read: Reporting Tools Software Guide 2024

Prescriptive analytics: Uses mathematical and computational sciences to suggest decision options to advantage businesses.

Mixed-integer programming (MIP): Enables users to model and solve problems where the decision variables are a mix of continuous and integer variables.

Constraint programming: Helps solve complex combinatorial problems by specifying the constraints that need to be satisfied. 

Heuristic methods: For complex problems where exact methods might be too slow, IBM Decision Optimization provides fast, high-quality heuristic solutions.

Scenario analysis: Allows businesses to consider a range of outcomes and conditions for multiple scenarios to better manage risks and uncertainties. 

IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio:

• Free Edition: Available for academic use.
• Developer Subscription: Priced at $199 per authorized user annually​ (TrustRadius)​​ (Top AI Tools Directory – OpenTools)​.

IBM Decision Optimization for Watson Studio:

• Contact for Pricing: Custom pricing is available based on enterprise requirements and deployment scale​ (GptDemo)​.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data:

• On-Demand Pricing: Starts at $0.56 per capacity unit hour, with additional costs for storage and data transfer.
• Subscription Pricing: Annual subscriptions are available at a custom quoted price.

KNIME (Konstanz Information Miner) provides a highly customizable environment for your data analytics needs, catering to data scientists and analysts who require granular control over their workflows.

Its modular design allows you to build data processes using a variety of nodes for tasks like data preprocessing and machine learning. KNIME’s open-source nature makes it accessible to individual users at no cost, with additional enterprise features available for larger teams. If you prioritize flexibility and innovation in your data science projects, KNIME offers a sandbox environment perfect for experimenting with different models and algorithms.

Also read: Best Data Analysis Software & Tools for 2024

Visual workflow editor: Provides an intuitive, drag-and-drop style visual interface for building data workflows. This makes the process of data manipulation, analysis, and visualization easy to understand and execute.

Extensive integration capabilities: Supports a wide range of data formats and systems, including SQL, NoSQL, Hadoop, and various cloud storage options, enabling seamless data integration from diverse sources.

Open source and customizable: Offers the flexibility to customize the platform according to specific needs. Users can contribute new functionalities via KNIME’s node extension system.

Rich analytics tools: Houses a comprehensive set of tools for data mining and machine learning algorithms, statistical functions, and data visualization, serving as a robust platform for data-driven decision-making.

Contact KNIME for a customized quote.