SQL Server Business Intelligence Services

SQL Server offers the following services to assist in facilitating a Business Intelligence Solution.

• SQL Server Database Engine

• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)

All four services have been available “out of the box” since SQL Server 2005.

Database Engine

The SQL Server Database Engine service can support a Data Warehouse database structure.

Integration Services

The SQL Server Integration Service (SSIS) provides the ETL facility and enables data to be imported to/exported from a variety of data sources including SQL server databases, flat files, spreadsheets and other ODBC or OLE-DB sources, enabling it to be transformed along the way.

Reporting Services

The SQL Server Reporting Service provides a report creation and deployment function.

Analysis Services

The SQL Server Analysis Service provides the facility to create OLAP cubes and interrogate cubes via the MDX query language and client browsers. It also provides a Data Mining capability for analyzing business trends and predictions. Data Mining structures can be queried using the DMX language and client mining tools.