I saw this out there a couple of days ago,  and I think it helps explain the sort of evolution from the old BI tools (Business Objects, Cognos, etc.) and Wave.   In the old days (back when cars were called horseless carriages!) the BI universe consisted of some pretty technical tools, that data gurus would have to spend hours and hours “cubing” data to get the views right, then deliver the UI (graph or report) to the real users.  If a change came up in the data model, back to square 1 – AND the UI from a user perspective was always awful – I wondered why users ever put up with it.

Going back to last week, the demo I saw backs up with the author experienced.  SF loaded the data that I spent so much time struggling with – and viola! – the Wave tool immediately started doing the joins for you, figuring out common date ranges, and drawing various graphics without any help!  If you wanted to change the views, it was pretty easy to understand (not simple, but this is complex data) and when you re-submitted – the new graphics were super fast (lightning fast???) and clean.

Anyway, check this out – worth a quick read.  Wave isn’t cheap, but it’s totally worth it if you have lots of data and need to understand it better…