Preface One of the benefits of computing technology is its ability to change the information landscape. The Internet, Wikis, and other technologies make it easy to share ideas rapidly around the world. Our decision making ability, whether it is buying a car for the right price or making a critical business decision, has improved. The challenge, however, is in sorting through all of the information to find what is relevant to the decision you want to make. At the same time, the technology landscape is changing. Transformation to cloud computing is accelerating. We are at a crossroad, one where an explosion in information meets the new cloud computing paradigm. To improve decision making and spark innovation, IBM® offers the Smart Analytics Cloud. This IBM Redbooks® publication presents a Smart Analytics Cloud. The IBM Smart Analytics Cloud is an IBM offering to enable delivery of business intelligence and analytics at the customer location in a private cloud deployment. The offering leverages a combination of IBM hardware, software and services to offer customers a complete solution that is enabled at their site. In this publication, we provide the background and product information for decision-makers to proceed with a cloud solution.