Alteryx Designer: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 18. Introduction to the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform

A couple of years ago, Alteryx could see that the power of cloud computing combined with scalable analytics was a powerful combination. They also saw that customers who had grown to love the simplicity and ease-of-use of Alteryx Designer, but who needed to move to the cloud, weren’t being addressed. Out of this observation came the idea for the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform.

Alteryx leadership posited that platforms work best and therefore committed to building the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform. At the time of this writing, the vision that is being worked on is to pair Alteryx Designer and Alteryx Server alongside the Analytics Cloud Portfolio of Apps. Designer and Server are what is called “Cloud Connected Applications,” whereas everything else is “Cloud Native Applications.” This is useful because, like Amazon AWS or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), having a suite of applications that are built to work closely together and serve the landscape of users and use cases is a more efficient and cost-effective way to deliver technology. I won’t dive too deep into this topic here, as this too could be a whole book on its own, but I want to ensure that you have a solid understanding of what’s available and how to best use those features.

The fundamental concepts you’ll learn about in this chapter include:

• Why platforms are valuable

• The move from all-purpose to purpose-built functionality

• The influence of AI

You’ll also ...