Microsoft BI Tools and Applications

Microsoft has had success in the business intelligence (BI) server applications market with the SQL Server BI platform, which includes tools and services geared to developers building BI applications. However, the company has offered only limited tools for less-technical users to work with and analyze the complex data stored in server applications, largely leaving development of such tools to partners.

Since the release of SQL Server 2005 in Nov. 2005, Microsoft has moved to close this gap, and now markets or will soon ship several (often overlapping) end-user BI tools to complement the SQL Server platform.

The following list summarizes the BI components of SQL Server and Microsoft’s most important BI tools and applications.

SQL Server BI Platform

SQL Server Analysis Services is Microsoft’s online analytical processing (OLAP) and data-mining technology, which helps companies analyze historical data and spot hidden correlations and patterns in those data. Analysis Services stores data in multidimensional structures called cubes, which are optimized for fast data summary and filtering, and it supports creation of key performance indicators (KPIs).