Executive QV Questions -- Would Appreciate Assistance
Good Evening Qlik Community,
I've been working with QlikView for the last year or so and have built applications for most of the departments across my organization. Recently, I was asked by our private equity investors to give a demo of QlikView to an executive at one of their portfolio companies. This particular executive was very interested in the software and bombarded me with a slew of questions. I wasn't 100% confident with my answers to a few specific questions I was asked, so I figured I'd pose these same questions to the community to see what exactly I missed.
I sincerely appreciate any and all insight provided for any of the items below:
What's the difference in the scripting language of QlikView compared to SQL?
Are there any issues with logging in to the software remotely? Do you need to log-in to the company server? Can you log-in without an internet connection and view data from the last refresh in which there was a server/internet connection?
Will QlikView work on both Windows and Mac OS?
Security concerns:
What type of security protection is in place to ward off hackers, fishing, etc?
Is the data being stored / backed up?
Where?
How often?
If the server/software crashes is the data protected?
Does QlikView have the ability to host an external customer portal so external customers can log-in remotely and view ALL and ONLY their data? Is this functionality an additional expense? Any pricing details?
What's the difference in the scripting language of QlikView compared to SQL?
Are there any issues with logging in to the software remotely? Do you need to log-in to the company server? Can you log-in without an internet connection and view data from the last refresh in which there was a server/internet connection?
Will QlikView work on both Windows and Mac OS?
Security concerns:
What type of security protection is in place to ward off hackers, fishing, etc?
Is the data being stored / backed up?
Where?
How often?
If the server/software crashes is the data protected?
Does QlikView have the ability to host an external customer portal so external customers can log-in remotely and view ALL and ONLY their data? Is this functionality an additional expense? Any pricing details?
A lot of these question does not have simple answers and perhaps I'm not the expert you're looking for, but I'll give you some thoughts.
1. SQL is a language for extracting data from databases. QlikView scripting is used to build a QlikView data model to handle all your data from various sources, among them the possibility to use SQL databases with data extracted with the help of SQL language. I'd say that QlikView scripting is kind of a basic programming language - not too far away from BASIC actually - whereas SQL is a tool for getting data out of databases. But there are similarities between theses languages, even though some differences tend to be confusing at first for those well aquainted with SQL.
2. That depends on where you put your QlikView Server. You could have a public web server on it where QlikView can be accessed, but I would think most companies put it behind firewalls in the internal network, sometimes accessible through VPN.
I'm not sure what you mean by logging in without an internet connection. If your server is internal there should be no need for an internet connection, unless the data you want to load into QlikView is located externally (i e on the internet). Otherwise it's not necessary that the server can be reached from the internet or that the server can access the internet.
3. Macs can access the QlikView AccessPoint and its applications through browser, but depending on your QlikView applications there might be compatibility issues. QlikView is a windows only application when it comes to desktop and server installation.
Data is commonly stored in files (where you store them is up to you) but accessed in memory. A crash that doesn't affect your storage would therefore under normal circumstances not lead to loss of data. But of course there are situations with all software where you could loose your work if you haven't been saving it for example. Backing up data is mainly up to your infrastructure and how you make backups.
5. You should study Section Access (probably mentioned in the security document linked in the answer above) to learn about restricting data for different users, but yes it's possible. And it's something that is available natively in QlikView. You could set up a server that is accessible from the internet, and then you might want one internal server and one external server (or more than one depending of performance needs), perhaps you need QlikView Publisher and so on. You should contact a Qlik sales representative regarding your needs and princing.
What's the difference in the scripting language of QlikView compared to SQL?
Are there any issues with logging in to the software remotely? Do you need to log-in to the company server? Can you log-in without an internet connection and view data from the last refresh in which there was a server/internet connection?
Will QlikView work on both Windows and Mac OS?
Security concerns:
What type of security protection is in place to ward off hackers, fishing, etc?
Is the data being stored / backed up?
Where?
How often?
If the server/software crashes is the data protected?
Does QlikView have the ability to host an external customer portal so external customers can log-in remotely and view ALL and ONLY their data? Is this functionality an additional expense? Any pricing details?
A lot of these question does not have simple answers and perhaps I'm not the expert you're looking for, but I'll give you some thoughts.
1. SQL is a language for extracting data from databases. QlikView scripting is used to build a QlikView data model to handle all your data from various sources, among them the possibility to use SQL databases with data extracted with the help of SQL language. I'd say that QlikView scripting is kind of a basic programming language - not too far away from BASIC actually - whereas SQL is a tool for getting data out of databases. But there are similarities between theses languages, even though some differences tend to be confusing at first for those well aquainted with SQL.
2. That depends on where you put your QlikView Server. You could have a public web server on it where QlikView can be accessed, but I would think most companies put it behind firewalls in the internal network, sometimes accessible through VPN.
I'm not sure what you mean by logging in without an internet connection. If your server is internal there should be no need for an internet connection, unless the data you want to load into QlikView is located externally (i e on the internet). Otherwise it's not necessary that the server can be reached from the internet or that the server can access the internet.
3. Macs can access the QlikView AccessPoint and its applications through browser, but depending on your QlikView applications there might be compatibility issues. QlikView is a windows only application when it comes to desktop and server installation.
Data is commonly stored in files (where you store them is up to you) but accessed in memory. A crash that doesn't affect your storage would therefore under normal circumstances not lead to loss of data. But of course there are situations with all software where you could loose your work if you haven't been saving it for example. Backing up data is mainly up to your infrastructure and how you make backups.
5. You should study Section Access (probably mentioned in the security document linked in the answer above) to learn about restricting data for different users, but yes it's possible. And it's something that is available natively in QlikView. You could set up a server that is accessible from the internet, and then you might want one internal server and one external server (or more than one depending of performance needs), perhaps you need QlikView Publisher and so on. You should contact a Qlik sales representative regarding your needs and princing.
