BI Improvements on SQL Server Roadmap

Business intelligence (BI) improvements are planned for the next version of SQL Server, expected in the first half of 2010. The improvements could make SQL Server’s data analysis and reporting features more accessible to users via improved integration with the Excel spreadsheet application and SharePoint Server collaboration and portal product. However, the release—code-named Kilimanjaro—is still far off, and it’s not yet clear how it will fit into Microsoft’s BI product line.

New BI Client, Appliance Platform

SQL Server consists of a database management system (DBMS) and a platform for BI. The BI platform includes components for extracting data from operational systems for analysis (Integration Services), on-line analytic processing (OLAP) and data mining (Analysis Services), and design and distribution of reports (Reporting Services). The BI platform ships with SQL Server and is included in the SQL Server license, but it can analyze data from sources other than SQL Server, including Oracle and IBM DB2 databases.