MicroStrategy 9 vs IBM Cognos 10

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MICROSTRATEGY 9.4.1VS. IBM COGNOS 10.2
A comparison of key BI capabilities (2014)

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7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639, 7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840, 7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562, 7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181,
7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811, 7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253, 7,881,443, 7,925,616, 7,945,584, 7,970,782, 8,005,870, 8,051,168, 8,051,369, 8,094,788, 8,130,918, 8,296,287, 8,321,411 and
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MICROSTRATEGYVS. IBM COGNOS – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
KEY CONSIDERATIONS MICROSTRATEGY
IBM
COGNOS
1.ARCHITECTURAL EFFICIENCY
a. METADATA ARCHITECTURE – Single, reusable and object-oriented metadata vs. multiple metadata silos STRONG AVERAGE
b. MULTI-SOURCE - MicroStrategy’s ability to combine different data sources vs. IBM Cognos’ restrictive multisource STRONG AVERAGE
c. IN-MEMORY ARCHITECTURE – “In-memory ROLAP” architecture vs. “In-memory” or “ROLAP architecture” STRONG WEAK
d. SECURITY ARCHITECTURE - Centralized and easy to manage security vs. decentralized security STRONG WEAK
2. SELF-SERVICE (DATA DISCOVERY)
a. AGILE ANALYTICS – Business friendly self-service analytics and rapid dashboard development STRONG AVERAGE
b. SELF-SERVICE ARCHITECTURE – MicroStrategy’s fully integrated data discovery vs. IBM Cognos’ limited integration STRONG AVERAGE
3. ENTERPRISE-GRADE DASHBOARDS – Powerful design capabilities vs. limited dashboard experience STRONG AVERAGE
4. NATIVE MOBILE BI APPS – Native Mobile apps that users love vs. IBM Cognos’ limited mobile capabilities STRONG AVERAGE
5. PROACTIVE BUSINESS MONITORING AND ALERTING – Proactive monitoring vs. limited proactive monitoring STRONG AVERAGE
6.TRANSACTIONS AND WRITE-BACK – Actionable vs. non-actionable dashboards and mobile apps STRONG
NO
SUPPORT
7.ADVANCED INTERACTIVITY – Interact with different levels of data through prompting, drilling, and searching STRONG AVERAGE
8. INTEGRATED MAPPING – Advanced geospatial analysis for the masses STRONG AVERAGE
9. PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY - Superior performance at scale vs. performance limitations at scale STRONG AVERAGE
10.ADMINISTRATION EFFICIENCY – Higher efficiency using administration tools vs. limited administration tools STRONG AVERAGE
11. DEPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY - BI on-premises or in the cloud STRONG AVERAGE
12. INDUSTRY ANALYSTS – Get unbiased perspective from one of the top industry analysts – BiScorecard STRONG AVERAGE

ARCHITECTURAL EFFICIENCY – METADATA ARCHITECTURE
MicroStrategy’s single unified architecture vs. IBM Cognos’ multiple interfaces architecture
1.a.
Other BI ToolsMICROSTRATEGY
MicroStrategy IBM Cognos
1 Single Unified Architecture:
MicroStrategy’s BI platform is
organically developed from the
ground up without any acquisitions.
A single metadata, server, and code
base enables centralized security and
administration as well as tighter
product integration.
Multiple User Interfaces: IBM Cognos
has different interfaces for different
tasks (Cognos Workspace for
dashboards, Cognos Workspace
Advanced for advanced data
exploration and Report Studio for
reports with corporate data). IBM
Cognos has no single consistent
metadata. IBM Cognos and TM1 cubes
require their own unique set of
metadata.
2 Highly Object-Oriented
Development and Object
Reusability: Reusability of metadata
components ensure that the same
analytic object is used over and over
at many different places across many
reports and dashboards, and also as
building block to create other analytic
objects. Any change made to the
reusable metadata components
automatically propagate to all
dependent objects ensuring easy and
automated change management.
MicroStrategy’s object-oriented
metadata contains the most reusable
objects including but not limited to
attributes, metrics, filters, prompts,
consolidations, custom groups,
reports and templates.
Redundant Changes Result in
Maintenance Nightmare: Report
developers cannot create report objects
such as metrics and filters as stand-
alone and reuse them across different
reports/dashboards creating redundant
work and too many objects that serve
the same purpose to maintain.
MicroStrategy offers a much superior metadata
architecture as compared to IBM Cognos

ARCHITECTURAL EFFICIENCY – MULTISOURCE
MicroStrategy’s ability to combine different data sources vs. IBM Cognos’ restrictive multi-source
1 Self-service Data Blending
Capability: MicroStrategy
provides the option to either
create a enterprise-wide
logical data model or the
ability for business users to
easily combine data from
different data sources on-the-
fly. This provides high degree
of data analysis flexibility.
Limited Data Blending
Capabilities: Cognos Insight
allows joining multiple data
sources into a single cube and a
single visualization. However
unlike MicroStrategy it cannot join
data between different cube data
sources into the a single
visualization.
1.b.
Create a unified enterprise-wide
view from all your data assets

1 Superior Scalability and Performance Through In-memory ROLAP:
MicroStrategy’s in-memory ROLAP architecture provides the best of
both worlds by combining the speed of in-memory processing with the
scalability of direct database access. In-memory cubes exist within the
virtual data model that spans the BI application and give users fast
response times while maintaining full access to the entire enterprise
data warehouse.
Developers have the flexibility of selectively accelerating response
times of the most frequently accessed reports by creating in-memory
cubes, while maintaining a single enterprise-wide view of information.
Dynamic Cubes Require Additional Schema Design: IBM Cognos
Dynamic Cubes require a data warehouse structured in a star or
snowflake schema in order to maximize the performance
characteristics of the solution. In addition they are only supported
on a limited list of databases as compared to MicroStrategy. Cognos
Dynamic Cubes are modeled with a built-for-purpose modeling tool
called IBM Cognos Cube Designer thus requiring additional schema
work instead of directly leveraging the already-built schema model.
ARCHITECTURAL EFFICIENCY – IN-MEMORY ARCHITECTURE
MicroStrategy’s In-memory ROLAP architecture vs. IBM Cognos’ In-memory or ROLAP
architecture
Database
Enterprise-wide
data model
Database
Cube Cube
Database
ROLAP
Architecture
Cube
Architecture
MicroStrategy
In-Memory ROLAP
Architecture
Database
Multiple Subject-oriented
models directly accessing
database
Multiple subject-oriented
models held fully in-memory
OR
CubeCube
MicroStrategy’s Superior In-memory ROLAP Architecture Vs. IBM Cognos’ Either/Or Architecture
1.c.

Enterprise-Class Security at Every Level of the BI Architecture
ARCHITECTURE EFFICIENCY – SECURITY ARCHITECTURE
Centralized and easy to manage security infrastructure vs. decentralized Security management
1 Centralized and Pervasive Security: MicroStrategy provides
centralized security administration across the entire platform.
Security can be managed for all reports and documents from a
single location.
De-Centralized Security: IBM Cognos security is manually configured in
many places, increasing the chances of human error.
2 Object-Level Access Privileges: Administrators can assign access
control privileges (read, write, use, delete, execute, and browse) on
individual metadata objects like attributes metrics, filters, custom
groups, and others.
Limited Flexibility Setting User Privileges: IBM Cognos offers
administrators very limited granularity for setting group and user
privileges. IBM Cognos offers column level security through manual
coding from Framework Manager(architect tool) for user groups only.
The process is tedious and has to be repeated for each column. In
addition, a separate group has to be created for each security setting
even if the requirement is for a single user.
3 Reusable and fine-grained setup for platform-wide user
authorization: MicroStrategy employs over 160 privileges to assign
application functionality to user groups, user roles, and individual
users.
No Reusable Security Setup: Security settings cannot be reused across
the entire deployment and have to be defined redundantly for every
user group.
1.d.

SELF-SERVICE (DATA DISCOVERY) – AGILE ANALYTICS
Business friendly self-service analytics and rapid dashboard development
1 Integrated Self-Service over the Web:
MicroStrategy Visual Insight is Web-based, thus,
requires no separate installation before use. It is
a drag-and-drop interface that supports
advanced visualizations like Google map,
network visualization, waterfall, heat map, and
micro charts, thus, helping users efficiently
display trends and anomalies in an aesthetically
pleasing manner.
Self-Service available as stand-alone desktop
tool: IBM Cognos Insight is a Desktop client,
which was released in May 2013 and currently
only supports a single visualization at a time.
The only way to have multiple visualizations is
to create a story board.
2 Data Blending Capabilities: MicroStrategy
allows the definition of a single visualization with
attributes/metrics feeding from multiple
datasets (reports/cubes) from within Enterprise
Dashboards and Visual insight. In addition, it
allows joining modeled and un-modeled
datasets.
Limited Data Blending Capabilities: Cognos
Insight allows joining multiple data sources
into a single cube and a single visualization.
However unlike MicroStrategy it cannot join
data between different cubes into the a single
visualization.
3 Built-in Best Practices for Visual Exploration: A
number of visual exploration best practices
embedded within the product. For example,
visualization suggestion engine, auto geocoding,
auto time hierarchy creation, multiple shelf's like
color-by, and size-by for easy multidimensional
analysis.
No Built-in Best Practices for Visual
Exploration are Supported: Cognos Insight
does not have built-in best practices for ad-hoc
analysis of data and does not support a
visualization suggestion mechanism.
4 Mobile Accessible Dashboards: Interactive
visualizations created in Visual Insight can be
viewed in any mobile device, thus, allowing the
users to interact with data on the go.
No accessibility to visualizations on Mobile
Devices: IBM Cognos Insight dashboards are
not supported on Mobile.
Rapid data analysis and
dashboard creation
Graphical Query Builder for
easy data preparation
2.a.

SELF-SERVICE (DATA DISCOVERY) – SELF-SERVICE ARCHITECTURE
MicroStrategy’s Fully Integrated Data Discovery vs. IBM Cognos Insight’s Limited Integration
1 Fully Integrated Data Discovery Utilizes Platform ACL’s: MicroStrategy
Visual Insight is fully integrated with the MicroStrategy platform and
provides the option to utilize the existing schema layer. This ensures
reusability of datasets and a single version of the truth for all users. As a
result, MicroStrategy enables a managed self-service environment free of
spread-marts and data siloes. MicroStrategy Visual Insight automatically
utilizes users’ object-level access control privileges from the platform
security setup.
Partially Integrated Data Discovery: IBM Cognos Insight is not integrated
with IBM BI platform. While it supports publishing dashboards into the
enterprise and connecting to Cognos report data and package data, it does
not use Cognos’ platform schema, security, privileges, permissions etc.
This is not even on the roadmap. Thus users are left with multiple versions
of the truth and very slim visibility into where Cognos Insight is heading.
2.b.
Agility and single
version for business
Manageability &
Consistency for ITEnterprise-wide data model
IBM Cognos Insight
IBM Cognos
Environment
Dashboard 1 Dashboard 3 Dashboard 4Dashboard 2
Publish
One way

ENTERPRISE-GRADE DASHBOARDS
MicroStrategy’s powerful dashboard creation vs. IBM Cognos’ limited dashboard experience
1 Fully Integrated Dashboards with Powerful
and Flexible Design Experience: Developers
have exceptional flexibility to create highly
interactive, pixel-perfect dashboards. A number
of design capabilities such as WYSIWYG
interface, multi-tab and multi-layered layouts,
large number of selector controls for filtering
flexibility and performing targeted filtering,
information windows for contextual pop-ups,
dashboard linking and screen designing for
building workflows, fine-grained formatting
capabilities, and wealth of interactive
visualizations and widget controls provide a
flexible and powerful design experience.
Multiple Dashboarding Tools with
Limitations in Design Experience:. IBM
Cognos has too many different tools to create
a single full dashboard. IBM Cognos reporting
consists of Query Studio, Analysis Studio,
Report Studio, Workspace and Workspace
advanced which creates a lot of confusion.
Each tool has some capabilities and some
limitations and not all of them allow you to
create a report once and edit anywhere. In
addition all these tools do not provide and
self-service capabilities, users have to
download a separate product (IBM Cognos
Insight) for that.
2 Automatic Drill-Anywhere: Users can
automatically drill through the full depth and
breadth of the data warehouse and obtain
detailed information.
No Automatic Drill Anywhere: Users can drill
up and down within a pre-defined hierarchy.
Users cannot drill outside a hierarchy or data
source to explore the entire DWH, thus,
limiting the drill experience.
3 Custom Dashboard Output: Powerful object
prompting capability generate custom outputs
depending on the selections made by the end
users during run-time.
Limited Custom Dashboard Outputs: Object
prompting is not supported. As a result,
Cognos is limited in terms of generating
custom dashboard output at run-time.
4 Actionable Dashboards: Users can not only
consume information but also initiate
appropriate actions (write-back) from within
the dashboards.
Not Actionable from the platform : Users
cannot initiate write-back actions from within
the dashboards interface. Only Cognos
Insight supports write-back to the underlying
cube.
Gain superior insights from content
rich enterprise dashboards
3

MicroStrategy Mobile Ranked #1
1 Mobile Ready Reports and Dashboards:
MicroStrategy allows users to run reports and
dashboards directly on their iPad, iPhone, or
Android devices. Because reports and
dashboards in the BI application do not have to
be re-authored for the mobile device, minimal
additional IT investment is required for mobile
deployment.
Limited Dashboard Features on the Mobile
Device: Only Reports created in Report Studio and
Cognos Workspace can be viewed on Mobile. In
addition, these reports have to be specifically
formatted for Mobile devices creating multiple
silos of information. Furthermore, only active
reports (reports created in Report Studio) are
supported offline from IPADs only. Cognos Mobile
for Android does not supporte Offline reporting
because the app is not a native app.
2 Deliver Multimedia Content Through Mobile
App: Deliver multiple forms of information
(PDF, Videos, ePub, Presentations, etc.) within
the same App.
Limited Capabilities to Deliver Multimedia
Content: Cognos does not provide a multimedia
widget control like MicroStrategy. As a result, the
capability to deliver multimedia content is limited.
3 Actionable Mobile Apps: Implement
transactional capabilities into the information
driven mobile apps.
Non-Actionable Mobile: Cognos does not provide
transactional (write-back) capability from Mobile.
4 Create Workflow-Driven Apps: MicroStrategy
Mobile provides high degree of design
flexibility to build multiple screens and
combining them into a single workflow-driven
app or dashboard.
Limited Flexibility to Create Custom Workflows :
Cognos mobile apps provide limited development
flexibility to build intricate workflows of multiple
screens and combining them into a seamless and
intuitive dashboard
5 Deliver Rich Apps on Small Screen Devices:
Ability to do screen design and workflows
provide powerful capabilities to build apps for
small screen devices.
Limitations on Small Screen Devices: Due to the
smaller screen and lack of mouse-over capabilities,
certain components and dashboard features are
not supported on mobile devices.
NATIVE MOBILE BI APPS
MicroStrategy’s Native Mobile apps that users love vs. IBM Cognos’ limited Mobile capabilities4

PROACTIVE BUSINESS MONITORING AND ALERTING
MicroStrategy’s proactive monitoring to improves business efficiency vs. IBM Cognos’ limited proactive monitoring
MicroStrategy Distribution Services acts as a
proactive information radar for the enterpriseMicroStrategy IBM Cognos
1 Mass Distribution of Personalized
Content (Report Bursting): Ability to
deliver personalized slices of
information from a single report to a
large number of users
Limited Report Bursting Capability:
IBM Cognos has very limited dynamic
distribution list capabilities across the
product set. Therefore,
Administrators have to define fixed
distribution lists and cannot use
conditions to dynamically conform
the recipient list.
Scheduling/Distribution of
dashboards is extremely limited.
2 Personal Exception Thresholds:
Business users can define personal
exception thresholds, for example,
send me the report when inventory
level falls below “x” units. This
capability allows users to set up
information radar to proactively
monitor their business processes.
Limited Exception Based Thresholds:
IBM Cognos does not support
proactive notifications based on
threshold or exception condition.
5

Transaction Services is fully integrated into
MicroStrategy’s organically grown platform
TRANSACTIONS AND WRITE-BACK
MicroStrategy’s Actionable dashboard and mobile apps vs. IBM Cognos’ non-actionable dashboards
1 Data Written Back to the Data
Source: MicroStrategy
Transaction Services can not
only write back to the data
warehouses, datamarts, and
ERP/Operational Systems, but
also to Web Services
Applications (like
Salesforce.com).
Limited write-back
availability: Write-back
functionality is not supported
from Web and Mobile, only
from Cognos Insight and TM1.
Data can only be written back
to the underlying cube and not
to the data source out of the
box.
2 Multiple Formats of Data Input
Supported: Multiple control
styles for data input are
supported such as –
text/numeric fields, calendar
dates, time, binary values, drop-
down lists, slider, steppers,
switches, and camera.
Not Supported: Write back
from TM1 to the source file is a
complicated process and has
to be coded via the
TurboIntegrator tool (ETL
engine).
3 Transactional Mobile
Intelligence: MicroStrategy
supports business process to be
performed from a Mobile
transaction app without using
any traditional format.
Not Supported
6

ADVANCED INTERACTIVITY
Interact with different levels of data through Prompting, Drilling, and Searching
1 Dynamic Report Personalization: Object prompts enable users to dynamically
select which report objects they want to see by authoring the report set at
runtime. As a result, a single report can span hundreds of possible data
combinations tailored to different user needs. MicroStrategy displays prompt
values and report content that are permitted by the user's security profile.
MicroStrategy prompts enable different users to personalize the same report
and give them significant ad hoc capabilities.
Limited Dynamic Report Personalization: IBM Cognos offers limited options
for parameterized reports. Object or column prompts such as selection of
attributes, metrics, and filters on the fly are not supported. This limits end users
in terms of generating custom dashboard output at run-time and causes an
unnecessary number of reports to be created and maintained for end users.
2 Drill Anywhere: MicroStrategy users can drill anywhere in the entire data
warehouse or across multiple data sources for boundary-free investigative
analysis. Users can automatically drill within or across hierarchies without pre-
defining drill paths. They can also modify report contents on-the-fly and further
deepen the investigation by drilling outside of an Intelligent Cube to perform
OLAP analysis.
Lack of Automatic Drill-Anywhere: Users can drill up and down within a pre-
defined hierarchy. Users cannot automatically drill across reports. All drill paths
across cubes and across reports have to be manually defined by IT or report
developers. Users also cannot drill outside a data source to explore the entire
data warehouse. The data source typically only holds a subset of data
warehouse tables, further limiting the drilling capabilities.
3 Google-Like Search for Quick Data Access: MicroStrategy users can not only
search for reports and dashboards but also any other metadata objects using
auto-complete, suggested matches, and instant search results with multi-level
Google-like search capabilities. Granular object-level search allows users to
locate analytical objects easily, preventing redundant object creation and
promoting object reuse.
Limited Search Functionality: Users cannot search for metadata objects other
than reports and dashboards. Cognos also does not have auto-complete,
Google-like search capabilities.
7
Powerful Personalization Automatic Drill Anywhere Multi-Level Search

INTEGRATED MAPPING
Advanced geospatial analysis for the masses8
1 Free Esri Maps out-of-the box:
MicroStrategy provides a free out-of-
the-box connector to Esri ArcGIS
online. As a result, advanced
geospatial analysis, including place
data points or shaded geographic
areas on a map, as well as the ability
to create clusters, density maps, and
other spatial visualizations is
accessible to all users. MicroStrategy
also incorporates several Esri
basemaps, including street views and
satellite imagery.
No free offering for ESRI:
Customers interested in ESRI maps
have to purchase the add-on
directly from ESRI whose maps can
be directly integrated with Cognos.
In addition, the ESRI add-on can
only be defined in Report Studio, it
is not supported from any other
reporting tool.
2 Out-of-the-Box integration with
Google Maps: MicroStrategy also
provides out-of-the-box with Google
Maps and Esri On-premise.
MicroStrategy also integrates with a
variety of additional Geographical
Information System (GIS) partners to
meet any specific needs which
extend beyond out-of-the-box
functionality.
Limited offering for Google maps
integration: Google maps is not
available out of the box in Cognos, it
requires SDK customization using
JavaScript API. Because of this
google maps do not work on mobile
properly because Cognos reports on
Mobile do not support JavaScript.

PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY
High scalable BI platform with superior performance9
Push-Down Architecture: MicroStrategy is widely recognized by industry
analysts & customers as a highly scalable enterprise BI platform.
MicroStrategy leverages the database to its fullest extent by pushing data
joins and analytic calculations to the database whenever possible.
Mid-Tier Centric Processing: Data joins across multiple sources, and many
calculations are performed at the mid-tier level resulting in unnecessary data
movement and poor utilization of database processing power.
High Performance Multi-Pass SQL: Multi-pass SQL queries provide greater
analytical power and minimize the amount of data that is pulled back to the
mid-tier. MicroStrategy’s SQL engine is one of the most sophisticated in the
industry and leverages multi-pass SQL in order to increase performance.
Limited Multi-Pass SQL Capabilities: IBM Cognos does not dynamically generate
multi-pass SQL. Therefore, it has limitations answering complex questions in an
efficient way by leveraging the database and analytical engine in the middle-tier.
Multi-stage calculations such as percentage to total, and contribution metrics
needs to be created at the report level.
Clustering and caching create superior performance: Asymmetric
clustering, shared caching, and cluster-wide synchronization of in-memory
cubes and metadata are all supported by MicroStrategy
Limited Clustering: IBM Cognos is limited in the extent to which resources can be
optimally shared across a cluster. Asymmetric clustering is not supported.
Parallel SQL Execution: Multiple passes of SQL can be executed in parallel
to improve query performance.
No Parallel SQL Execution: Multiple passes of SQL cannot be executed in parallel
to improve performance.
Push-down
Joining Uses the
DBMS Engine
Multi-pass SQL
Multi-dimensional
Business Model
Joins across
databases happen
at the client side
Minimum data
movement across
the network
Heavy data
movement
across the
network
Push-down architecture to fully leverage database processing power

ADMINISTRATION EFFICIENCY
Higher efficiency using administration and automation tools vs. limited administration tools
1 Workflow Automation: MicroStrategy System Manager
merges different administrative tasks, such as creating
users, starting or stopping server, and many others into a
single workflow. It is also possible to combine non-
MicroStrategy processes into the workflow.
No Workflow Automation: IBM Cognos does
not provide any workflow automation tool.
2 Object Management and Migrations: MicroStrategy
Object Manager facilitates metadata life cycle
management. The presence of a single metadata
repository increases change management accuracy and
efficiency.
Object Management Available: Objects in IBM
Cognos can only be migrated from the content
store in packages. Users have to create the
packages and upload them to the content
store, then move them to the new project. This
requires multiple steps for final deployment
increasing the chances for errors. Cognos also
does not automatically and comprehensively
check for dependencies when changes in
metadata objects occur given its inability to
support metadata content across the entire
product set.
3 Automated Integrity Checking: MicroStrategy Integrity
Manager automates the report comparison process and
verifies the consistency of reports by comparing both the
SQL and the pixels of copies of reports and highlights any
inconsistencies. This automated process eliminates the
need of manual consistency checking, resulting in huge
time savings while upgrading to a newer versions or during
object migrations.
Limited Integrity and Regression Testing:
Cognos does not provide any automation tool
for data validation.
4 Automated Command Line Scripts: MicroStrategy
Command Manager reduces repetitive and time consuming
administrative tasks through automated command line
scripts.
No Automated Command Line Scripts for
Administrative Tasks: IBM Cognos does not
provide a comprehensive command line
administrative tool for high volume tasks across
the product set, making administration across
several departmental BI applications more time
consuming.
10
IBM Cognos’ LIMITED ADMINISTRATION

DEPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY
BI on-premises or in the cloud
1 Deploy Platform On-Premises or in the Cloud: The platform itself can be
deployed both on-premise and in a traditional software model or through the
Cloud environment. MicroStrategy Cloud offers a platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
offering which includes a MicroStrategy BI service, plus the option of adding
integrated data warehouse and data integration capabilities.
No Integrated PaaS Option: IBM Cognos only offers its enterprise BI cloud
solution through partners. So whatever services are offered (support,
payment model, data integration, etc.) depends a lot on what the partner is
able to provide.
2 Access Data Instantly via MicroStrategy Analytics Express (SaaS): Business
users can instantly connect to their data and explore it using powerful and
intuitive data visualizations. No installation required as all capabilities are
available through a zero-footprint Web based SaaS solution.
Supports a SaaS-based BI offering: IBM Cognos now offers BLU Cloud
combining IBM DB2 with BLU Acceleration, in-memory technology, and
Cognos BI. This offering is currently in beta since Januray 2014. However the
cognos BI portion offers no data exploration and ad-hoc capabilities. Users
have to follow complicated steps before their data is available in Cognos BI
cloud portion.
3 Securely Explore Data using the Free MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop:
MicroStrategy offers a free solution to explore your data securely using a
desktop application. The free solution not only allow accessing Excel Files, and
Flat files but also all major databases and even big data sources.
Restrictive Free Offering: IBM Cognos Insight Personal Edition is available
for free, but only allows access to Excel data (CSV, XLS, and XLSX). In order
to connect to all major databases users have to buy the Standard Edition.
Run MicroStrategy
Analytics Platform on-
premises (PaaS)
Deploy secure, expertly
managed BI Platform in
the Cloud
Start exploring in the cloud
with the free MicroStrategy
Analytics Express (SaaS)
11
BI Platform Agile BI
Start exploring data with
free MicroStrategy
Analytics Desktop
Analytics Express

“BIScorecard is the only analyst firm that tests
BI suites hands-on, based on over 300 detailed
criteria, and with the customer perspective in
mind.”
BI Scorecard
INDUSTRY ANALYST
Get unbiased perspective from one of the top industry analysts – BiScorecard12
Source: BI Scorecard® Strategic and Product Summary – Q4 2013.
MicroStrategy vs. IBM Cognos
• No functional gaps, superior breadth
• Industry’s best architecture
• Highest-rated overall in self-service BI

MicroStrategy 9 vs IBM Cognos 10

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