Microsoft is becoming an increasingly vocal proponent of integration across its various product lines. As of Tuesday, it added SQL Server Reporting Services, yet another layered software component, to its repertoire.
Microsoft launched its Reporting Services product on January 27 via a Webcast for customers, analysts and the press. Microsoft offered Webcast launch participants several customer testimonials, a product demonstration and stage-setting remarks by executives overseeing the product.
As its name specifies, Reporting Services is designed to help customers author, generate and view reports comprised of data stored in SQL Server and third-party databases for which ODBC drivers and OLE data providers are available. These include popular databases such as Oracle and IBM’s DB2.
SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services is part of what Microsoft is calling its Business Intelligence Framework. It is designed to complement the replication services, data transformation services, and analysis (in the form of online analytical processing and data mining) services that Microsoft currently offers as part of its SQL Server database platform.
