Should You Choose Cloud or On-Premise Deployment for Embedded Analytics in Bold BI?

Overview

When implementing embedded analytics, one of the first architectural decisions organizations must make is whether to deploy the analytics platform in the cloud or within their own infrastructure. Bold BI supports both deployment models, allowing organizations to choose the option that best aligns with their security, compliance, infrastructure management, and data access requirements.

This article outlines the key considerations for choosing between Bold BI Cloud and Bold BI On-Premise deployments for embedded analytics.

Understanding Embedded Analytics with Bold BI

Bold BI is designed with embedded analytics as a primary use case. Organizations can integrate dashboards directly into their applications so that end users access analytics within the existing application experience without separately logging into Bold BI.

In a typical embedded deployment:

• Users authenticate through the host application.
• The application generates an authentication token using Bold BI’s embedded security mechanism.
• Dashboards are rendered inside the application.
• User-specific information can be passed through tokens, filters, parameters, or row-level security implementations.
• The Bold BI server works as the analytics service behind the scenes while dashboards appear native to the host application.

This architecture is supported regardless of whether Bold BI is deployed in the cloud or on-premise.

Deployment Models Available in Bold BI

Bold BI offers two deployment options:

Cloud Deployment

In the cloud model:

• A dedicated Bold BI instance is hosted and managed by Syncfusion.
• Infrastructure management is handled by the Bold BI team.
• Customers connect their data sources to the cloud-hosted Bold BI environment.
• Organizations can focus on dashboard development and application integration rather than server administration.

On-Premise Deployment

In the on-premise model:

• Bold BI is installed within the customer’s environment.
• Customers maintain full control over the analytics server infrastructure.
• Database connections remain within the organization’s network.
• Organizations manage server resources, security policies, and deployment configurations.

Bold BI supports deployment on Linux environments and can be installed within existing virtual machine infrastructures.

Key Factors to Consider

1. Data Security and Governance

For many organizations, data governance is the primary factor influencing deployment decisions.

Cloud Deployment

Cloud deployment may be suitable when:

• Organizations are comfortable connecting their databases to a managed cloud-hosted analytics environment.
• Internal policies allow data access from external hosted services.
• Infrastructure management is preferred to be outsourced.

On-Premise Deployment

On-premise deployment is often preferred when:

• Data must remain inside the organization’s network.
• Security policies restrict external access to databases.
• Customers need complete control over infrastructure and network access.

Organizations with strict security requirements frequently select on-premise deployments to avoid exposing database connectivity outside their environment.

2. Infrastructure Management

Another important consideration is who manages the analytics infrastructure.

Cloud Deployment

With Bold BI Cloud:

• Syncfusion manages the Bold BI infrastructure.
• Customers do not need to provision or maintain analytics servers.
• Upgrades and platform management responsibilities are simplified.

This option is often attractive for teams that want to minimize operational overhead.

On-Premise Deployment

With on-premise deployment:

• Infrastructure is managed by the customer’s IT team.
• The organization controls server configuration and deployment architecture.
• Existing virtual machines and server environments can be utilized.

Organizations with dedicated DevOps or infrastructure teams may prefer this model for greater control.

3. Database Connectivity

The database connection experience differs slightly between the two deployment models.

Cloud Deployment

When using Bold BI Cloud:

• Database connections originate from the cloud-hosted Bold BI instance.
• Organizations must allow the necessary access between their data sources and the hosted Bold BI environment.

On-Premise Deployment

When using Bold BI On-Premise:

• Database connections are established directly within the customer’s network.
• Analytics traffic remains inside the organization’s environment.

The dashboard design experience remains the same in both deployment models.

4. Data Storage Behavior

A common question regarding embedded analytics is whether Bold BI stores customer data.

The answer depends on how data sources are configured.

Live Connection Mode

When dashboards use live connections:

• Bold BI does not store business data by default.
• Data is queried from the source system during dashboard rendering.
• The dashboard displays data retrieved directly from the connected source.

Extract and Caching Modes

When using:

• Data Extracts, or
• Data Caching

Bold BI stores relevant data to improve dashboard performance.

For cloud deployments, extracted or cached data is stored within the cloud-hosted Bold BI environment.

5. Metadata Storage Requirements

For on-premise installations, Bold BI requires a database to store platform metadata.

This metadata database contains information such as:

• Users
• Dashboards
• Categories
• Configuration settings
• Other platform-related information

Organizations may:

• Use an existing database server, or
• Create a dedicated database specifically for Bold BI metadata

A dedicated metadata database is generally recommended to keep analytics platform data separate from application databases.

Feature Parity Between Deployment Models

Both cloud and on-premise deployments support core embedded analytics capabilities, including:

• Dashboard embedding
• Single sign-on style user experiences
• Embedded authentication
• Token-based security
• Row-level filtering
• Data source filters
• Dashboard parameters
• Widget embedding
• Dashboard embedding
• Multiple data source connections
• MySQL connectivity
• SQL query-based data sources
• Drag-and-drop dashboard design

The deployment choice primarily affects infrastructure ownership and data access architecture rather than embedded analytics functionality.

Best Practice Recommendation

Evaluate your deployment choice based on data governance requirements first and infrastructure management preferences second.

Organizations that prefer a managed environment can utilize Bold BI Cloud to reduce infrastructure administration efforts. Organizations that require greater control over infrastructure, networking, and data access can deploy Bold BI within their own environment.

Regardless of the deployment model selected, Bold BI provides the same embedded analytics architecture, enabling organizations to seamlessly integrate dashboards and analytics into their applications while leveraging existing authentication systems and user access controls.