SSRS provides no benefit with Analysis Services?

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Kevin - 09 Jul 2008 14:22 GMT

I'm new to Analysis Services and I've been looking into using it for some
reports. I was wondering something and was hoping someone could clarify.

First off, I'm still on SQL Server 2000. What I'm wondering is this - Even
if you can integrate Analysis Services into a Reporting Services report you
still aren't taking advantage of the strength of Analysis Services, correct?

What I mean is it seems the benefit of Analysis Services appears to be it's
ability to enhance performance by pre-aggregating. However, if you are
pulling data into a Reporting Services report (matrix for example) the report
is still having to "re-do" the aggregations isn't it?

I'm looking at the sample report that came with SQL 2000 - Foodmart Sales.
Also, I'm reading http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa902647.aspx

I hope all this explains my question.

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

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Bruce L-C [MVP] - 09 Jul 2008 14:33 GMT

There is processing that occurs to display it in a matrix. Reading the paper
it talks of flattening the data and then RS would take the flattened data
and show as a matrix. However, this is quite minor compared to the time
savings of using the cube (assuming your data is of size to make having a
cube of value in the first place).

Signature

Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services

> I'm new to Analysis Services and I've been looking into using it for some
> reports. I was wondering something and was hoping someone could clarify.
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Kevin

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Kevin - 09 Jul 2008 14:40 GMT

One additional thought - It seems that if I'm right, it would be easier to
just use a T-SQL query or stored procedure to pull the data and not have to
learn MDX or manage Analysis Services.

> I'm new to Analysis Services and I've been looking into using it for some
> reports. I was wondering something and was hoping someone could clarify.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Kevin

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Bruce L-C [MVP] - 09 Jul 2008 14:54 GMT

Analysis Services and MDX queries are non-trivial. I would first see if your
performance is acceptable without that. Try some of your queries and stored
procedures. See if appropriate indexing works. How big is the data you are
reporting off?

Signature

Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services

> One additional thought - It seems that if I'm right, it would be easier to
> just use a T-SQL query or stored procedure to pull the data and not have
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>>
>> Kevin

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