Reporting Services
Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform developed by Microsoft that enables centrally-managed, secure and scalable browser-based database reporting. It is part of Microsoft’s SQL Server database product; it was initially available as a downloadable add-on for SQL Server 2000 but is now incorporated into SQL Server 2005.
It differs from Crystal Reports in many ways, but primarily:
• One browser-based reporting product – whereas Crystal Reports has two distinct products, one to create reports and one to publish them, Reporting Services is all-in-one. If you purchase SQL Server 2005 you have the ability, out of the box, to create rich, secure browser-based reports.
• Aimed at database professionals and system developers – this is a tool for technical professionals; a greater level of technical knowledge is required to develop reports.
• It is ‘free’. Reporting Services is supplied as part of SQL Server 2005 so if you have SQL Server then you have the inherent ability to create and deploy browser-based reports (the reporting functions available depend on the edition of SQL Server). This is fine for companies with a small report user base, but larger companies with many report users would benefit from a dedicated reporting platform and would therefore incur the cost of an additional SQL Server licence in order to host the report server on a separate physical server.
Although Reporting Services is part of SQL Server 2005 you can use it to create reports from virtually any data source though the report definition must reside on a SQL Server (in much the same way as you need Crystal Reports to open a Crystal Report!).
Reporting Services is inextricably linked to SQL Server 2005 – the range of database and reporting features available depends on the edition. Enterprise edition is the full product with all available functionality and is designed for organisations that need high-availability databases and have high-volume reporting requirements. Standard edition is suitable for organisations that don’t require the high-availability database features and who have moderate reporting requirements. There are also Workgroup and Express editions.
Additional Information
• Recommendations
• Training
• SQL Server 2005 Feature Comparison
• Reporting Services Feature Matrix
• Microsoft Reporting Services
• Crystal Reports vs Reporting Services
