Pro SQL Server Reporting Services

W ith the explosion in information that is created in companies today, many corporations struggle with howto digest and disseminate relevant information to everyone in an organization. For some users, Excel is the best format. Otherusers just want a simpleweb browser to slice and dice their data to get at their nuggets of information. Talking to customers about their reporting needs, likethe ones cited previously, was the impetus to create Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. However, the road to what you now knowas SQL Server Reporting Services was a long one. We started development on the technology around four years ago. A small team started to build a reporting solution that would revolutionize the way corporations build, deploy, and use reporting. We made some big bets along the way, such as building the solution on the new . NET technologies that were just released in beta around the same time that development started. We also made the solution Web services-enabled out of the box. All of these were risky bets when we made them, but in hindsight, they were the right bets, both for Microsoft and our customers. Customers consistently comment about how they like the flexibility that SQL ServerReportingServices provides them by integrating tightlywith . NET technologies, while at the same time giving them interoperability through the product's use ofWeb services. Further, SQL Server Reporting Services is not only a great enterprise reportingsolution, but it also shows how you can build rich applications using the latest Microsoft technologies.