Qlik expands cloud footprint to India

Qlik is expanding its presence in Asia-Pacific with a cloud region in India to meet the growing demand for data-driven decision-making capabilities.

The expansion comes as Qlik sees a shift in customer attitudes towards cloud adoption, with increased acceptance and understanding of its value proposition, and at a time when data analytics platforms are expanding in scope and reach.

“Our strategy has been to broaden our portfolio beyond the core of business intelligence and analytics,” said James Fisher, chief strategy officer at Qlik, in an interview with Computer Weekly. “We aim to deliver a data analytics platform that supports a range of personas, from data engineers to business analysts and C-suite executives.”

This strategy is bolstered by Qlik’s recent acquisitions, including Talend, which brings enhanced data integration and data quality capabilities. Fisher noted the importance of this acquisition, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). “What we’re seeing in the market today around AI, particularly generative AI (GenAI), is the moment that bringing Qlik and Talend together was waiting for,” he said.

Fisher highlighted the synergy between the two companies in addressing the growing demand for high-quality structured and unstructured data to fuel AI applications, adding that Talend’s capabilities were integrated into Qlik Cloud within a year.

Qlik’s India cloud region, located in Mumbai, follows the launch of cloud regions in Australia, Singapore and Japan over the past five years. The company deploys its cloud services in the APAC region in Amazon Web Services datacentres, enabling it to leverage the hyperscaler’s robust infrastructure and comply with local data sovereignty requirements.

Addressing concerns about data security and cloud adoption, Fisher acknowledged that while there had been reservations about cloud, there is now greater understanding of its value. That said, protecting customer data remains key, with Qlik investing in compliance certifications such as Australia’s Infosec Registered Assessors Program and data governance policies.

The company also recognises that not all customers are ready for a full cloud transition. “That might mean deploying certain use cases in the cloud, while some use cases remain on-premise, which we support today,” said Fisher, noting that this allows customers to leverage Qlik’s capabilities while maintaining control over their data and transitioning to the cloud at their own pace.

Fisher outlined the typical customer journey, noting the growing interest in AI-driven capabilities. While interest in training large language models (LLMs) remains nascent, he sees a trend towards more focused and specific use cases, citing the example of a large automobile company that has leveraged Qlik’s platform to create a data fabric to power GenAI experiences.

He also stressed the continued importance of traditional predictive analytics and business intelligence. “Don’t forget about analytics and traditional AI,” said Fisher, adding that a solid data foundation is needed for any AI initiative, whether it involves LLMs or traditional machine learning (ML) models.

With data science teams becoming more expensive and harder to come by, he said Qlik’s efforts to democratise access to ML capabilities by empowering business analysts and users with automated ML tools through its platform will lower the barriers to AI adoption and “create a rising tide for all forms of analytics”.