When creating analytical sandboxes for business users, keep the following design principle in mind to help ensure you  provide the right environment for your enterprise:

Sufficient infrastructure must be available for conducting business analytics – The infrastructure for an analytical sandbox includes:

• Processing, such as PCs and servers (physical, virtual and cloud)
• Storage (physical and cloud)
• Integration capabilities (physical and virtual)
• Self-service BI tool(s)

This infrastructure must be scalable and expandable as the data volumes, integration needs and analytical complexities naturally increase.  Insufficient infrastructure has historically limited the depth, breadth and timeliness of analytics as business people used their PC and spreadsheets to fill shortfalls.

To read four more suggestions for analytical sandbox architecture plus detailed architecture options and advice, see the white paper Analytics Best Practices: The Analytical Sandbox.