Wednesday, February 6, 2019

OAC―Getting Started with Oracle Analytics Cloud

Video 1.  Announcing new Oracle Analytics Cloud innovations (YouTube link)

Video 2. Announcing new Oracle Analytics Cloud innovations highlights 
(05/03/2021; YouTube link)

Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) is a scalable and secure public cloud service that provides a full set of capabilities to explore and perform collaborative analytics for you, your workgroup, and your enterprise.

With OAC you also get flexible service management capabilities, including fast setup, easy scaling and patching, and automated lifecycle management.

In this article, we will get you started with OAC in the following areas:
  • Features of OAC from Data-Centric and Data-Driven Perspectives
  • Options to Plot Your Journeys to OAC
  • Pre-defined Roles to Manage Your Data Assets and Applications

If you are interested in deploying OAC in Oracle Cloud and would like to start learning it, you can begin with:
Get Started with Data Preparation in Oracle Analytics Cloud



Features of OAC


Built on a high-performance platform with flexible data storage, Oracle Analytics Cloud provides a complete set of tools for deriving and sharing data insights:[1]
  • Data collection
    • Data connectors are available for a wide array of sources, Oracle and non-Oracle. In addition to native connectors, OAC supports open ODBC and JDBC.
  • Data preparation
    • Analysts can ingest, profile, and cleanse data using a variety of algorithms. 
  • Data flow
    • Analysts can prepare, transform and aggregate data, and then run machine-learning models at scale. 
  • Data discovery
    • Subject matter experts can easily collaborate with other business users, blending intelligent analysis at scale, machine learning, and statistical modeling. 
  • Data visualization
    • Analysts can visualize any data, on any device, on premises and in the cloud. 
  • Data collaboration
    • Large organizations and small teams can share data more simply, without the need to manage or consolidate multiple versions of spreadsheets, and quickly perform ad hoc analysis of the spreadsheet data.
  • Data-driven
    • Application developers can utilize interfaces that enable them to extend, customize, and embed rich analytic experiences in the application flow. 
With Oracle Analytics Cloud, you can take data from any source, and explore and collaborate with real-time data.



Migration Options


To help you plotting your journey to OAC, Oracle offers a range of options to existing Oracle BI Enterprise Edition, Oracle BI Applications, and Oracle Essbase customers:
  • Cloud First
  • Cloud @ Customer
  • Keep and Connect
  • Keep and Combine
  • Lift and Shift[14]

To view the details of each option, you can: read
Plotting your journey to the Cloud 

Users, Roles and Application Roles[22,23]


Most administrators set up user accounts and give people access to OAC through roles (also known as, user groups). The way you do this depends whether you manage users through
  • Oracle Identity Cloud Service  (IDCS) 
  • WebLogic embedded LDAP server
    • Oracle doesn't recommend using WebLogic LDAP Server in an environment with more than 1,000 users. If you need a production environment with high-availability and scalability, then use a directory service such as Oracle Internet Directory or a third-party directory service.[22]
    • If you have an existing service that uses WebLogic embedded LDAP server for identity management, you can use various export and import utilities to migrate your artifacts to another Oracle Analytics Cloud - Classic environment that uses Oracle Identity Cloud Service (see document).
To explain user roles and privileges, here we will use IDCS for illustration and start with application role first.


An application role comprises a set of privileges that determine what users can see and do after signing in to OAC. It’s your job as an administrator (i.e., who created the service) to assign people to one or more application roles.

OAC provides several predefined application roles to get you started. In many cases, these predefined application roles are all that you need. Note that you can’t delete predefined application roles or remove default memberships.

Application Role in OAC Description
BI Service Administrator  Allows users to administer OAC and delegate privileges to others using the Console
BI Data Model Author  Allows users to manage data models in OAC using Data Modeler
BI Data Load Author  Allows users to load data using REST APIs and Data Sync
BI Content Author  Allows users to create analyses and dashboards in OAC and share them with others
DV Content Author  Allows users to create visualization projects, load data for data visualizations, and explore data visualizations
DV Consumer  Allows users to explore data visualizations
BI Consumer  Allows users to view and run reports in OAC

Oracle Analytics Cloud is federated with Oracle Identity Cloud Service and initially offers a single user account (i.e., the user who creates the service) and several predefined application roles (note that these roles in IDCS are different from application roles defined in OAC).  Below diagram shows how application roles defined in IDCS are mapped to the ones defined in OAC.

For example, ServiceAdministrator is the application role defined in IDCS, which is
  • Member of BI Service Administrator, BI Data Model Author, and BI Data Load Author.
    • Allows users to administer OAC and delegate privileges to others.
    • The user who creates the service is automatically assigned this Oracle Identity Cloud Service application role.
So, instead of dealing with application roles defined in OAC, you assign roles defined in IDCS to users.




To learn more about Users, Roles, and Application Roles defined in OAC, you can watch below video and learn more details from [8, 22, 23]:

Video 3. Manage What Users Can See and Do in Oracle Analytics (YouTube link)

References

  1. Oracle® Cloud Getting Started with Oracle Analytics Cloud (pdf)
  2. Videos (OAC)
  3. Resources (OAC)
  4. Books (OAC)
  5. Migrating Artifacts from Oracle BI Applications to Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) (Doc ID 2290664.1)
  6. OBIA 11g: Oracle BI Applications Installation on PaaS with Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) (Doc ID 2254057.1)
  7. Essentials: Business Analytics (Oracle University)
  8. Manage What Users Can See and Do (OAC)
  9. Get Started with Data Preparation in Oracle Analytics Cloud (documentation)
  10. Quick Guide to Loading Data With Data Sync
  11. Frequently Asked Questions (OAC)
  12. Oracle Live: Announcing New Oracle Analytics Cloud Innovations (05/03/2021)
  13. Application Role by Functionality (OBICS)
  14. Lift and Shift of Oracle BIAPPS Artifacts to Oracle Analytics Cloud (Oracle BI Applications Blog)
  15. Oracle illuminates itsAnalytics Cloud: The sleepinggiant awakens (451 Research)
  16. Learn Modern Data Visualization with Oracle Analytics
  17. Configuring Oracle Analytics Cloud
    • Intended for administrators who use Oracle Analytics Cloud
  18. OAC public documentation
  19. Administering Oracle Analytics Cloud
  20. Configuring Oracle Analytics Cloud
  21. Click here for more A-Team Oracle Analytics (OAC) Blogs.
  22. Oracle Analytics Managing Security for Oracle Analytics Server, 5.9.0 (pdf)
  23. Managing Security for Oracle Analytics Server (5.9.0)
  24. Oracle Analytics Cloud: Unwinding User Security in Data Visualization
  25. Securing Oracle Analytics Cloud Content
  26. Oracle analytics library (good)
  27. Presenting Visualization using Insights and Stories in Visual Analyzer
  28. Administering Oracle Analytics Cloud on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (Gen 2)
at

2 comments: