Qlik Sense Enterprise Server

Qlik Sense Enterprise Server

Editor Rating: Good (3.5)
Qlik Sense Enterprise Server - Qlik Sense Enterprise Server
US Street Price$1500.00
  • Pros

    Custom access roles. Solid collection of public data online.
  • Cons

    Complex pricing is a deterrent.
  • Bottom Line


Self-service business intelligence (BI) tool Qlik Sense Enterprise Server, which begins at $1,500 for a basic access token (see pricing analysis at the end of this review), is a relatively new but rapidly growing player in the self-service BI tool space. It has a wide collection of products and associated use cases that can initially make it somewhat confusing to get started.

I looked at the Qlik Sense Enterprise Server which runs on a local Windows machine or on a cloud-based virtual machine (VM) but is accessed via a Web browser either way. This is the typical IT situation since all Qlik users and data sources can be centrally managed. The server has two parts. The first part is where you start by using the workspace application that has the same user interface (UI) in both the cloud or desktop versions. The second part is the Qlik Management Console which is for centralized account administration. Overall, I liked Qlik Sense Enterprise Server once I got used to it; it could serve the needs of casual small to midsize business (SMB) users very well but, because it's more complex to learn than other tools in this self-service BI tool roundup (notably Zoho Reports), and has what seems like unnecessarily complex pricing, it misses an Editors' Choice award in this comparison.

Once you pick your specific product version, it is deceptively easy to get started with Qlik Sense Enterprise Server—about as easy as setting up charts is in a spreadsheet. You start by simply connecting to a data source, choosing a chart type, and then specifying your axes, metrics, and labels. You drag and drop different elements from the list on the left-hand side of the screen onto its workspace, so you can quickly set up your visualizations. Properties sheets are shown on the right-hand side of the screen, allowing you to pick how you want your charts to appear.

I realize that the above description doesn't sound like Qlik Sense Enterprise Server does more than your average spreadsheet but that is far from the situation. Where it shines is behind the scenes where it can correlate different data sets and almost immediately show you some insights. A notable point is the Qlik Sense Enterprise Server's "smart data load" feature. With this capability, if you load multiple data sets, it can figure out which columns are in common and align your data accordingly—even if the column names aren't exactly the same. That is a big time-saver and is easier than having to manipulate multiple tables using straight SQL Joins (like you might have to do with other self-service BI tools such as Domo.

Qlik Sense Enterprise Server has other extensions that quickly bring it beyond what a typical spreadsheet can do, particularly when it comes to its data handling and collaboration features. The key takeaway from Qlik Sense Enterprise Server is that, while you have to know how to navigate around its interface, once you eat that learning curve, you can build very sophisticated data models without writing a single line of code. All you have to do is drag, drop, and click.

Data Importing and Collaborating

Qlik Sense Enterprise Server has several different data connectors including for Microsoft Excel and comma-separated files, various Web-based files, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connections—a good collection though not as deep as either Domo or one of our Editors' Choice winners Tableau Desktop. In addition to these, you can access a series of public databases that are stored on the online Qlik DataMarket such as current exchange rates and weather data. The free Desktop versions can only access free data sources; the Enterprise version lets you connect to everything in the market. These public databases aren't static tables but are maintained by Qlik Technologies so, for example, you can see the up-to-the-minute currency trading rates when you connect to that data set. A number of other vendors are attempting to get into the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) market (including Microsoft with its Azure Marketplace) but Qlik Technologies has done a good job making this easy with its tool.

However, taking Azure Marketplace as an example, Microsoft offers both Microsoft-curated data sets as well as offerings from third parties, giving it a fairly wide and growing selection. By contrast, the data sets in the Qlik DataMarket are only available from Qlik Technologies, with no third parties, so your selection will be smaller. Then again, with it you're assured that everything has been vetted by Qlik Technologies.

In addition to the default connectors, Qlik Sense Enteprise Server has a series of custom connectors that are installed separately. These include to several SQL databases as well as Cloudera, Hive, Teradata, and Salesforce. That speaks to Qlik's serviceability to most SMB analysis scenarios as well as its ability to perform analysis on Big Data repositories (though it still isn't quite as robust in this category as Tableau Desktop).

To add collaboration features to Qlik, you will need to either share your visualization to the cloud or send it to its Enterprise Server. The latter is the preferred method if you have multiple people taking on different roles in your organization. That's where Qlik Sense Enterprise Server's second interface comes into play. It's also Web-accessible and offers a great deal of customization and management for many back-office kinds of tasks. Those tasks can be organized into four basic groups: manage content such as data connectors and users, manage resources such as security rules and roles, configure the server parameters, and monitor the server operations itself. For this last task, Qlik Technologies has also built some monitoring applications to show you the performance of its own server using its own dashboard and tools.

Qlik Sense Enterprise Server uses the best method of any of the self-service BI tools I reviewed for setting up different access rules and user roles. By default, each user can have one of five different administrative roles (along with being just a regular user), which are set up in the management console. But if this isn't sufficient, roles can be defined to whatever security policies you wish, and can include or exclude access to particular data sets, applications, or whatever policy element you choose. None of the other self-service BI tools I reviewed comes close to this flexibility.

Qlik Technologies has a good collection of resources to help you learn how to use its product including screencasts, webinars, help files, and an extensive discussion community that is very active, with dozens of threads, tips, and links to other learning resources. Qlik Technologies holds a weekly, hour-long "getting started" webinar in addition to all of these other materials.

Pricing and Versions

There are several different Qlik product lines. First is the free path for individuals and very small workgroups. They would run the Windows Qlik Sense Desktop, which is free forever. Second is the Qlik Sense Cloud version that is also free for individuals if they can't or don't want to install any desktop software. This can be viewed by up to five users but only the owner can make changes.

Qlik Sense Enterprise Server can run on any 64-bit Windows since Windows 7 SP1 but Qlik Technologies recommends a server version for production purposes, supporting Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1/2012/2012 R2. You will also need at least 8 GB of RAM and the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2. Users can access Qlik Sense Enterprise Server through any HTML5 compliant browser, and the screens incorporate responsive design so they can be properly viewed on smaller tablet and smartphone screens; however, there are no versions dedicated to mobile platforms such as iOS or Android at this time.

Qlik Sense Enterprise Server's pricing is somewhat complex. It is based on a token model; customers buy these tokens for various tasks and can spend them in one of two ways. The first way is that each token is created for a particular user's access. That user has unlimited access to the tool from whatever devices they choose to employ. This is appropriate for those power users that will be spending a majority of their day in the software. A second method is to assign logins to a token. Each token gets consumed over a certain number of active onlines. This method is more cost-effective for occasional users. For the review, Qlik Technologies estimated that my 20-user scenario would initally cost a one-time fee of $15,000, based upon the need to purchase 10 tokens at $1,500 each. Users would have to pay an annual $3,000 maintenance fee on top of this.