RABIC: A Reference Architecture for Business Intelligence in the Cloud

Classical Business Intelligence systems are based on common database management systems. The use of such classical, nonpolitical BI systems is not always the best solution. The incorporation of cloud computing technology offers great potential. Therefore, the combination of business intelligence and cloud computing is discussed more and more in science and industry with first products being already available on the market but so far no widespread use has been established. On the one hand, there are less scientifically based progress reports; on the other hand, there is an uncertainty and skepticism. Basic questions regarding the enterprise and software architecture are not yet clear. The absence of standards and transparency promotes skepticism and incomprehension. A lack of comparison and assessment models for BI cloud services and BI cloud systems fueled uncertainty. RABIC, the integrated reference architecture for business intelligence in the cloud, improves this situation by supporting the standardization, increase the transparency and abolish the skepticism. The measures to receive these objectives are to make BI cloud services in a uniform way describable and comparable and to make BI cloud systems assessable, comparable, describable and easier implementable. The vehicles as the integral constituents of the reference architecture are a taxonomy for BI cloud services and an architectural framework for BI cloud systems. This article presents an overview of the reference architecture.