Generally when we use the term stack in the business intelligence world we are talking about the big 4: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP along with all their recent acquisitions Cognos, BO etc. All of these companies claim to provide a platform to enable every type of business intelligence you might need to have. It's interesting to me that one of the largest platforms out there is often ignored but continues to grow into our business world through the internet.

Google is much more than a search engine. Over the past couple years the company has branched out to become a business solution platform. Some of the players in the BI space are already taking advantage of it. From a recent PR email I received -

Panorama Software, a leader in the Proactive Business Intelligence solutions space, recently launched the Beta version of a new analytics, reporting and data visualization solution for Google applications: Panorama Analytics for Google Docs. Panorama's Software as a Service solution integrates with Google to provide Google Docs users with new capabilities for advanced analytical, reporting and data visualization functions, all at no cost. Focused on pivot table and charting functionality, Panorama's solution is a high-value capability that makes spreadsheets in Google Docs and dashboards in iGoogle even more useful.

Another door Google recently opened into the enterprise is their announcement this week to enable SalesForce with the Google Docs solution. Read more here.

And lastly, Google launched Big Table two weeks ago positioning itself to go head to head with the cloud utility system that Amazon has had so much success with.

Bottom line....the platform we know today isn't the one we will be using in a couple years. I wonder how today's business intelligence companies will react?

Tags: Business Intelligence, Google, Platform, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle