Understanding Reporting Services - Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts - page 228

automated processing of stored procedures. This gives your clients the most up-to-date
reporting data with on-demand report execution.
➤ No need for SharePoint and Excel services: SSRS reports don't require the extra layers of
SharePoint server and Excel services. Requiring only a basic SQL Server environment, organi-
zations can build and distribute robust reporting mechanisms without the additional cost of
SharePoint.
➤ No need to install Silverlight: Power Pivot and Power View both require your clients to
install Silverlight (Microsoft's version of Flash) to run properly. SSRS has no such requirement.
➤ Implementation of dynamic filtering: Although query filtering can be achieved with Excel
data connections, passing dynamic filters takes additional effort in the way of VBA scripting.
And because VBA can't be utilized on SharePoint, any Excel report using dynamic filters can't
be published to the Web. As a result, most Excel reporting mechanisms extract huge blocks of
data from SQL Server databases in order to ensure all the data that will possibly be needed is
included. SSRS reports, on the other hand, run in the SQL Server environment where dynamic
filtering is supported. This allows your published reports to run faster because they can pull
only the data requested by changing filters on the fly.
➤ Built-in user authentication: SSRS reports can piggy-back on SQL Server's user logins and
database roles. This effectively lets you leverage SQL Server authentication to better manage
who can see which reports.
➤ Ability to export to multiple file formats: SharePoint and Excel services allow you to export
reports only to Excel. SSRS provides multiple export options, including PDF, Excel, CSV, and
Text File.
Reporting Services includes four major components: server, development environment, database
repository, and Web portal. Each component plays a part in delivering SSRS solutions.
➤ Server component: The SSRS server component is the central engine behind the reporting
service. Your database administrator typically performs the configuration of the SSRS server
component. Most IT departments already have SSRS up and running. You just have to ask for
the rights to build and publish SSRS reports.
➤ Development environment: SSRS solutions and reports are developed using the SQL Server
Business Intelligence Development Studio, which is part of the Microsoft Visual Studio envi-
ronment. This tool allows you to develop business intelligence applications including SSRS.
You need to ask your IT department about installing Microsoft Visual Studio environment.
➤ Database repository: SSRS requires an SQL Server instance in order to create the service
repository. The repository contains the metadata required to store all the reports and sub-
scription details. The SSRS database repository is named ReportServer by default. Most IT
departments running SSRS don't change this name. However, you'll want to confirm the
name of the SSRS database with your own IT department.