Migrating from Qlik Sense on-premises to Qlik Cloud: what changes for the end user
by Cluster
Migrating from Qlik Sense on-premises to Qlik Cloud is planned as an infrastructure project, with a schedule for the tenant, spaces, data connections and reloads, and it usually reaches the end user as an email saying the address changed. Someone who opens a dashboard once a week gets that notice, tries the link in their bookmarks, can't find the usual app and goes back to asking the analyst for the number on WhatsApp.
What follows is the list of what really changes for that person, what stays exactly the same and what the BI team needs to communicate before cutover.
What changes and what stays the same
For someone who only consumes analysis, the migration does not touch the content. The data model is the same, the charts are the same, the Qlik apps (the QVF files) do not change and a selection in a filter still carries through the rest of the screen. What changes is the path to the content.
| What | Qlik Sense on-premises | Qlik Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Address | Company server, internal link | Tenant URL, reachable over the internet |
| Login | Network account, sometimes VPN | Corporate login through an identity provider |
| App organization | Streams | Managed, shared and personal spaces (Qlik documentation) |
| Access from outside the office | Depends on VPN or external publishing | Browser, from anywhere |
| Mobile | Mobile app connected to the server | Same URL in the phone's browser |
| Recurring report | Delivery set up by the BI team | Subscription the user creates |
| Alert on a data change | Not available by default | Alert on a value or a variation |
| Permissions | Server security rules | Space permissions plus section access |
Every old link stops working
This is the first friction and the most underestimated. The old server's link sits in the browser bookmarks, in the month-opening email, in the committee presentation and in the spreadsheet the analyst sent in March. None of them leads to the new dashboard, and the user who tries does not get a message explaining why: they get an error.
It is worth mapping where old links circulate before cutover and replacing at least those in living documents, such as process manuals, the intranet and recurring emails. For the rest, the cheapest route is to keep a redirect from the old address for a few months.
Streams become spaces, and the names change with them
Qlik's recommendation is to map streams to spaces one to one, with the streams governed by the BI team becoming managed spaces and the self-service ones becoming shared spaces. What used to be "My work" becomes the personal space.
In practice, the migration is the chance the BI team takes to clean house, dropping idle streams and renaming what was confusing. It is the right call for governance, and it is also the reason the user cannot find the usual app: they look for the old name inside the old structure. If anything was renamed, the old-to-new mapping needs to arrive together with the notice about the address change.
What stays the same
Everything that defines what each person sees inside the app stays in force. Section access travels with the model, so the regional manager still sees their region and the director still sees all of them. The sheets, charts, colors and filters are the same, and published mashups stay up once they are pointed at the new environment.
What the user gains without having to ask
Three features end up in the hands of whoever consumes, with no ticket to the BI team:
- Report subscription. The user picks the sheet and the frequency and receives the PDF by email, with the filters they applied.
- Alert. They can be notified when a measure crosses a threshold or varies beyond what is expected, instead of opening the dashboard every day to check.
- Access from outside. The same address works on a phone, at the customer's office and on a trip, with no VPN.
These are the three items that pay off most in the cutover communication, because they answer the question the user actually asks, which is what they get out of the change.
Why adoption drops in the first weeks
Whoever uses analysis every day crosses the migration in one morning, saves the new bookmark and moves on. The problem is the occasional user, who opens the dashboard once a month to close a number and has no routine to absorb a new address, a new login and a new space name all at once.
This group disappears quietly. Nobody opens a ticket saying they stopped accessing, and the BI team only finds out months later, looking at the usage report or noticing that requests for numbers by message are back.
What holds this group is shortening the path to the dashboard: a single entry point announced everywhere, the old-to-new name mapping at hand and a short training focused on where to find what they already used. The closer to one click, the fewer people get lost.
Checklist for cutover week
The BI team takes care of the tenant, the spaces and the reloads. This list is the other half, the one that talks to the people who use it:
- Announcement with the date, the new address and how to sign in, sent before the cutover and repeated on the day
- Old-to-new name mapping: old stream, new space, app name in each
- Old links replaced in the intranet, manuals and recurring emails
- Redirect from the old address active for at least three months
- List of the ten most accessed apps, with a direct link to each
- 20-minute session per area, showing where to find what the area already used
- Subscriptions and alerts demonstrated in the session, with a real example from the area
- Channel open for the first week, with someone from the BI team answering
- Usage report compared between the 30 days before and the 30 days after, by area
Where NewHub comes in
NewHub is the consumption layer that sits on top of Qlik Cloud and gives this user a single address: apps and mashups in the same place, organized by area and topic instead of by technical structure, with the company's visual identity. It inherits the model and the permissions from Qlik, so nothing is duplicated and nobody comes to see what they did not see before.
At MDS Group, an insurance brokerage that operates in Brazil, Portugal, Angola and Mozambique, adoption rose 400% after the portal went in. At FIEG, the industry federation of Goiás state in Brazil, the user base went from 50 to 250.
If your migration to Qlik Cloud is on a schedule, the moment to decide the end user's entry point is now, together with the design of the spaces, and not six months later, when the usage report shows the drop. Talk to us to see NewHub running on a demo tenant.
Frequently asked questions
Does the user need to install anything to use Qlik Cloud?
No. Access is through the browser, on a computer or a phone, with the corporate login.
Do the dashboards look different after the migration?
The content is the same: same sheets, same charts, same filters. What changes is the address, the way to sign in and how the apps are organized, which goes from streams to spaces.
Does someone who saw a restricted set of data keep seeing only that?
Yes. Section access travels with the model, and permissions are now also controlled by the space where the app is published.
Do the links users saved keep working?
No. The old server's address stops responding, which is why the redirect and the replacement of links in documents and recurring emails belong in the cutover plan.
Can I get a report by email without asking the BI team?
Yes. Users create the subscription for the sheet they want, choose the frequency and receive the PDF.
How long does it take for adoption to return to normal?
It depends less on the technology and more on the communication. With an old-to-new name mapping, a single entry point and short training by area, usage usually settles within the first month; without them, the occasional user disappears without warning.
