(c) 2012 Pinar Ozger. pinar@pinarozger.com

Cloud technologies still lag behind on-premise tools in some key ways, but are unbeatable in enabling “one single guy” to complete large BI projects, We Are Cloud’s Rachel Delacour said at Structure:Data on Wednesday.

Delacour identified a few areas where on-premise tools outperform cloud: rapid and deep analysis of data, flexible visualizations and performance across data sets. But cloud beats on-premise when it comes to cost-effectiveness, simple deployment, collaboration and ease of use. In other words, cloud is “cheaper, better, faster, smarter” and rapidly filling the gap in areas where it’s deficient.

Cloud services let “answer questions that really matter,” Delacour said, and small businesses can “relax about the skills gap.” With back-end technologies like Google Big Query and Hadoop, she said, there are “lots of openings for small innovators.”

Watch the livestream of Structure:Data here.

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