SQL Server Reporting Services Roadmap – End of the Road; Moving to Power BI

Andrew analyzes and writes about Microsoft's data management, business intelligence, and machine learning solutions, as well as aspects of licensing... more

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a role in SQL Server, Microsoft’s long-standing on-premises database management and business intelligence (BI) software. SSRS is used to create traditional columnar business reports using Microsoft’s Report Definition Language (RDL).

SSRS technology is available in two server products:

SQL Server Reporting Services

Power BI Report Server.

They are essentially the same product, except Power BI Report Server can also host Power BI reports (.PBIX files) and is updated on a quarterly basis to maintain compatibility with the Power BI cloud service.

Product: SQL Server

Licensing: SQL Server

Near and Long Term (2025 and Beyond)

SQL Server 2022 is the last version to include SSRS. Starting with SQL Server 2025, all RDL-based reporting updates will be added to Power BI Report Server (PBIRS), exclusively. Microsoft states that PBIRS is a superset of SSRS, updated more frequently, and therefore a better choice for customers.

The real goals for Microsoft are twofold:

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