4

Need a easy to set-up and flexible web front-end for a data warehouse built in SQL Server 2008. I'd like to be able to expose both SSRS reports and SSAS cubes for browsing.

Seems like Microsoft wants us all to use Sharepoint for this, but I want something I can expose to internal users as well as customers, so I don't think Sharepoint will work (right?).

The other big approach people take seems to be coding up a custom ASP.NET app, which I have no desire to do.

Basically just want something like Cognos or Business Objects, but as a front end to SSRS and SSAS, not some proprietary data structure.

Why is this so hard to find - seems like it would be a common need. Why doesn't Microsoft make this?

Only one I've found so far is Report Portal (www.reportportal.com), which seems pretty good, but not stellar. As far as the big guys go, it looks like MicroStrategy (microstrategy.com) can work with native SSAS cubes, but for general reporting has it's own structures. Graphs and interface look good though, so would appreciate hearing from anyone with experience integrating Microstrategy and SQL Server as well.

Thanks!

ScottEdwards2000
  • 15
  • 1
  • 8
  • 21
  • Every time I delve into Reporting Services it seems like a documentation quagmire; finding anything useful is a pita. Ie, I feel for ya. – Bert Jul 27 '12 at 02:16
  • 1
    I think MS will be adding more and more content to their BI world over the next couple of yrs; currently linking everything up is a big job. Proclarity is a good example of MS's desire to have cube browsing technology within their package - they bought Proclarity and then stpped support for it. – whytheq Jul 29 '12 at 12:42

2 Answers2

4

The Enterprise version of SharePoint does what you want and more. It is also able to handle external users, but that requires some serious thought to architecture etc. However Enterprise SharePoint is not cheap, nor is a SharePoint farm installation a minor exercise.

Having used SharePoint to do this, it is very powerful, but does not work well over SSL, so terminate your SSL at the F5 or other hardware.

For information on planning a SharePoint implementation, have a look at Planning an architecture for SharePoint server 2010 also Extranet topologies for SharePoint 2010 Products

Running through the rather large amount of documentation here should give you a glimpse of what is involved in getting a SharePoint extranet working.

Nat
  • 14,175
  • 5
  • 41
  • 64
  • 1
    +1 Nat It's a common misconception that Sharepoint is for intranets only. You will be trading off custom asp.net development time for Sharepoint configuration time. But once you get it to work, you get all the built in goodies (Excel Services for pivottables, SSRS, PerformancePoint, PowerPivot (2008 R2 and up), PowerView (SQL 2012 and up)... – brian Jul 27 '12 at 03:36
  • Thanks, guys. You're right, I totally thought Sharepoint was for internal use only (the name sorta makes it sound that way). Anyway, I would love to have all those SQL goodies for external customers as well as in house users. I assume security and access controls are very flexible. Nat, when you say it "requires some serious thought to architecture," would you mind briefly discussing the concerns? None of of here are Sharepoint experts (we currently only have Sharepoint through Office 365 hosted solution, which I'm sure won't do the job, right?). Thanks again! – ScottEdwards2000 Jul 27 '12 at 22:07
  • 1
    Yeah, Office 365 is a nice hands of SharePoint, hosting your own is a different story. I am not sure I would advise creating your own SharePoint site as it could be an expensive exercise without some in house knowledge. – Nat Jul 31 '12 at 01:55
  • Thanks for the links and additional info, Nat! – ScottEdwards2000 Jul 31 '12 at 19:56
0

Would be really interested in a good "non-sharepoint, non-BI" answer. I see this question asked all over the place with people specifically saying "I don't want to use sharepoint, what are the alternatives." and invariably the next 200 answers are "Use sharepoint"

If you're a SQL/Asp shop that just does standard web, sharepoint and BI are both megatons of bloat just to get internet/intranet report delivery.

So the answer is "No there's not a "Front end in a box" other than the ones you've mentioned. Go kickstarter one as this is one of the most frequent searched on pain-points I've ever seen with the least amount of viable answers/solutions.

banquo
  • 11
  • Thanks. When I wrote this power bi wasn't really a thing yet. Dues that change anything, or is it still licensed just for internal use? – ScottEdwards2000 Sep 20 '18 at 15:03