Is SSRS mainstream yet?


Microsoft introduced SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) in 2004 as open alternative to Crystal Reports and Expensive BI Solutions in the market. As with any platforms from Microsoft it quickly became a choice for developers to look into. It is based on an open standard and xml based RDL. In spite of its initial surge, simple, flexible and open API, recent trend by Microsoft suggests that SSRS is not going to be part of it's mainstream product line. Few of the recent moves by Microsoft suggests this assertion.

  1. Report Viewer in Visual Studio 2010 doesn't support R2 yet, after almost two years since its CTP. (VS2010 RTM is released in April 2010. SSRS R2 was released about the same time).
  2. Microsoft removed the Data connectivity and parameters from report viewer which is prime feature of the competing Crystal Reports.
  3. No custom objects support in report viewer.
  4. There is no Report Viewer Components available for WPF, Silverlight and MVC yet. These are the current mainstream development technologies for Microsoft platforms.
 Only other explanation to the above trend might be that Microsoft is focusing on increasing revenues on SSRS by re-positioning it as a Mid-Tier or Upper-Tier BI platform competing with Business Objects and Cognos, by integrating more into SharePoint and removing it from the desktop reporting side. Either way, I believe developers/architects of applications should carefully weigh in the risks of choosing SSRS as their primary BI/Reporting platform.

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