Pentaho is an extensively used Business Intelligence toolset (suite) across industries for data management. The suite is available in two editions- Community Edition(CE) and Enterprise Edition(EE). Analysts, data managers, software developers and even students find the applicability of this tool. Companies like JP Morgan, Dell, TCS, Accenture, OLX, Bank of America to name a few, have deployed Pentaho as an ETL tool.
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What is Pentaho?
Pentaho is a Business Intelligence tool that offers a wide range of data solutions to its customers. The main features of this tool are reporting, data integration, data mining, data analysis that account for the improvement of the business. A Pentaho suite enhances the overall performance of the business by generating informative reports in varied formats like text, XML, HTML, CSV, Excel, PDF, etc.
Why should you go for the Pentaho BI?
Pentaho BI suite is a set of tools that offers several benefits to businesses at an affordable cost and fast speed in terms of data management. Compared to other BI tools like SAP, SAS BIA, and IBA, the Pentaho BI offers exceptional technical support to the customers. It is highly scalable and offers large volume support to process data up to billion terabytes in size.
The scope of the Pentaho BI suite is vast supporting all kinds of data and data sources that furnish limitless visualization options. It supports an unlimited amount of data be it big data or existing data in the business IT. The tool works on several core engines that work independently and is administered by a dedicated community. It can be used across different platforms that process hybrid data (text, graphics, visuals GIFs etc) like mobile apps, cloud apps.
What is Pentaho BI Features?
Pentaho BI offers multiple features for the smooth workability of the business, such as:
High-end data analysis through well-defined ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capabilities
Expertise in products across varied domains
Comprehensive report designer taking care of business needs
Additional reports or sub-reports along with the main detailed report
High scope for newer additions and updates
24*7 technical support by the Pentaho Community
Unmatched reporting and query handling capabilities
Amplified functionality and efficient systems
Short integration TAT
Exceptional data source accommodability with high runtime metadata support
What is the Pentaho BI suite and What are its components?
The Pentaho BI suite is a three-tier system that has different layers for exclusive functioning. It comprises of following layers and components:
Tiers or layers:
Presentation Layer
Business Intelligence Platform
Data & Application Integration
Components:
1. Reporting
The Pentaho BI reporting tool can be used for generating reports both on-demand and as per the fixed schedule set by the user. The reporting tool, however, works in association with the JFreeReport Project. The reports published by this tool are available in different formats like TXT, XLS, HTML, PDF, etc.
2. Analysis
Another feature of this suite is an analysis of the extracted and transformed data which is now available in the form of reports. The analysis can be presented in multiple ways such as a Pivot table. The graphical user interface is well enhanced with projection tools like Flash, SVG, etc. Other features include Workflow integration, portals and dashboard widgets that are integrated with the apps.
3. Dashboard
The dashboard serves as the front face of the suite that offers well-reported content along with analysis and layout. The Pentaho suite also offers a self-service dashboard that has multiple layouts and templates to offer to its users. If the user is willing to get some training, personalized dashboards can also be made.
4. Data Mining
Data Mining refers to extracting hidden patterns and future indicators from the available data that increases predictability of the future business and also accounts for forecasting. Data mining runs on the concept of machine learning which is backed by sophisticated algorithms that involve decision trees, networks, principal component analysis and clustering of data.
This feature allows interaction with the data at the graphical and program level to enable future analysis.
5. Pentaho Data Integration
Pentaho data integration is a tool that allows and enables data integration across all levels. This tool possesses an abundance of resources in terms of transformation library and mapping objects. This helps in data integration, Big data analytics, data integration, and Hadoop data management.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Pentaho?
Advantages
1. Highly intuitive tool
2. Ease of use and high scalability
3. Allows reporting, data mining, data integration, dashboard working, etc.
4. User-friendly GUI
5. Ease data retrieval
6. The one-stop destination for ETL and reporting and analysis
7. 24*7*365 technical support
Disadvantages
1. The components can be present in a segregated mode
2. Fragile unified interface
3. For a growing business, the components may feel limited
Conclusion
The Pentaho BI suite is an exclusive business intelligence package that offers a wide range of data manipulation options including the basic ETL. The scope of this suite is quite wide and is used by business analysts, software programmers, researchers, and students, etc. Even being a highly sophisticated and complex intelligence tool, the ease of use it provides to its users is highly appreciable.
