cognos to ssrs migration – a brief overview · pdf file... real time desk to and real...

Jayaprakasha Sarma C | Practice Head - BI

COGNOS TO SSRS MIGRATION- A Brief Overview

NOUSINFOSYSTEMS

L E V E R A G I N G I N T E L L E C T

This paper provides an overview of the Business Intelligence Reporting solution based on SSRS and Cognos and outlines the process for migrating from Cognos to SSRS. The paper elaborates on the archi-tecture, features, Capabilities of SSRS and Cognos reporting tools and concludes with a comparison of SSRS and Cognos in terms of how they stack up against each other and other reporting tools in the market. The challenges involved in migrat-ing reports from Cognos to SSRS is covered which would enable enterprises to make an informed decision on the same. Also featured is a brief overview of other reporting tools dominating this space.

INTRODUCTION

Business Intelligence reporting (BI report-ing) is referred to the process of receiv-ing/providing information or reports to end-user/organizations/applications through a BI software/solution. BI report-ing primarily facilitates the capture of output or results from a BI software/solu-tion. Typically, BI reporting is a preconfig-ured function/feature/component within a BI software/solution. Based on the param-eters set, BI reporting is generally an automated process that captures and reports on analyzed data. These reports can be in the form of statistical data, visual charts and/or standard textual content.

Now, when we look at the BI landscape, there is a lot of focus on getting reports/-dashboards in seconds rather than in minutes. In the overcrowded BI market, most reporting tools have common features like security, production, distribu-tion, deployment and support. However, the differentiating factors include ease of usability, report quality, scalability and performance.

With that said, let’s look at the 2 products Cognos and SSRS in detail.

ABSTRACT

2Cognos to SSRS Migration - A Brief Overview

COGNOS

Cognos has a three tier architecture namely Presentation tier, Business tier and Data tier.

Presentation Tier:The Web server present in this tier handles request from user and responds to the user. After receiving a request from the user, it delegates the request to dispatcher which processes the request and sends the response back to the web server which is in turn delegat-ed back to the user.

Business Tier:Multiple Cognos services and BI servers are present in this tier. Dispatcher receives a request from the webserver and delegates it to the appro-priate services.

Data Tier:This tier has a Content store. BI server creates content store tables in the content store with the help of a content manager. BI server stores packages, reports, folders, scheduling, views, etc. in the content store.

Web UI

Web Server

Application Server

JDBC API JDBC

ContentStore Rpt DB Metric

Store

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Any Cognos implementation requires the following three components, which can be installed on a single server, or multiple servers. In a basic distributed install, one component would be installed per server.

1. Gateway:This is the first component that is accessed (invisible to the user) when a user accesses Cognos.

2. Cognos BI App server:This server consists of App Components, Dispatcher and Content Manager. The Dispatcher manages a number of differ-ent Cognos services such as report service, log server and many services like batch report service and delivery service. Content Manager manages the Cognos Content DB and all requests to access information from the Content DB is done through the Content Manager.

3. Cognos Content DB:This holds the metadata.

IMPLEMENTATION


1. Reporting a) Usage environments include Scheduled Delivery, Real time desk to and Real time web.b) Data Layout options (Tabular, Matrixed and Financial)

2. Data Analysis: a) OLAP, what-if Scenario?b) Predictive Modelling

3. Usability: a) Mobile platform supportb) Highly scalable and ETL toolset

FEATURES

The architecture of the application is structured and calibrated for optimal performance. This allows enterprises to scale the application to support their growing user base.

With Integration of IBM’s SPSS, it provides Predictive and Statistical Capabilities.

Uses Open architecture that leverages XML, SOAP and WSDL.

Multilingual capabilities automatically deliver reports in the users' native language.

BENEFITS

Initial setup isn't as simple as running the installer and activating it. Adjust-ments to the server setup may be necessary before it is up and running.

Browser support can be tricky. Compat-ibility is best with Internet Explorer, but certain browser setting changes can cause issues. Other browsers' compati-bility can be questionable due to their significantly more frequent updates.

It works best with actual databases and not so well with CSV or other file formats. An ODBC or JDBC driver can be used to treat files like databases, but native support is rather limited.

Using external ODBC drivers can be done with 32-bit drivers only.

Having a sandbox environment on a developer's personal machine isn't feasible due to the manner in which Cognos installs on a system.

LIMITATIONS


WHY MIGRATE FROM COGNOS TO SSRS?

Due to ever changing business needs and obsolete technologies, organizations are compelled to move from one reporting format to the other.

There are multiple reasons why enterprises may want to move from Cognos to Microsoft. Each suite has its own strengths and weak-nesses. On balance, there’s probably not enough of a rationale on either side to migrate from one to the other, unless addressing specific business needs. Some of the import-ant reasons are: -

Licensing: Cognos is a suite of separate applications that need to be licensed sepa-rately, as opposed to SQL Server which is a single product.

Cognos Upgrade: Your business may be looking at the cost of moving to Cognos 10 from Cognos 11 and not seeing enough ROI potential.

Uncertainty: With the IBM buyout of Cognos, the number of products in the mix has gone up; so we never know the tools that will be supported in the future.

Skills Availability: There are simply more Microsoft BI developers out there and generally are cost effective to employ and train.

Application Integration: Microsoft applica-tions are quite open in terms of Connectivity, Customization and Integration with other Applications. Cognos is a closed box.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Lacking of Proper

Documentation

LackingTurnaround

Time

High Manual Efforts

Additional Software/Hardware

Requirement

HIGH TCO

Difficult Validation of pre &

Post State

The Cognos report needs to be in XML format for the report to be converted to an SSRS report. Open a Cognos report via IBM Cognos Report Studio, go to Tools menu and select “Show Specifica-tion”. From here, one can get the XML equivalent of the Cognos report.

Data can be retrieved from XML data sources directly with Reporting Services using the XML data provider. It converts XML structure into a data set and SSRS utilizes the same to generate reports.

The XML content can be used directly within the query and can generate a report. Queries and data can be built dynamically within the report using expressions. XML Data provider can be used as a) XML embedded within query b) XML using URL c) XML using web services.

IMPLEMENTATION

However, each stack has its own strengths and weaknesses and each one may address your business needs better than the other.


Once the report data is in XML format, some limitations/drawbacks are as follows:

Unless specified in the query, data types will be returned as strings in XML. The data provider will not automatically detect the type information.

Maps and charts should have minimum of 1 dimension and measure for XML to be generated.

If a report contains more than one data container, such as a crosstab and a list, and both containers use the same query, only the output for the list is produced. So the person involved in the migration should have very good under-standing of Cognos as well as XML for him/her to convert this XML data to SSRS.

DRAWBACKS INMIGRATIONS

COGNOS & SSRS…WHICH GIVES BETTER ROI?


Pricing is dependent on the size of the business and the specific Cognos tools/CPU/roles required.

Cognos Enterprise Explorer TM1 comes at £19300 approx.

Tool PricingUnlike other major vendors, enter-prises don’t have to pay for expen-sive add-ons to run their most demanding applications because every feature and capability is already in-built. SQL Server Enter-prise Edition comes at £11,200 approx.

Highly Technical resources required. An enterprise license is $125 per user, per month, with a minimum subscrip-tion of 150 users and a minimum one-year term.

Resource Skill Set /CostComparatively less technical experi-ence required. However DB experi-ence is preferred. Microsoft SQL Enterprise 2 Core license comes with unlimited users and can be enhanced by speeding up storage and memory.

In memory aggregatesExtensible Visualization Enhance-mentsUser Interface Profiles

BI CapabilityR ConnectivityIn-memory analyticsAdvanced data miningAdvanced tabular

IBM® Cognos® BI was designed for scalability. It scales vertically using more powerful computers, and horizontally using a greater number of computers.

ScalabilityFirst step to take after deciding to scale SSRS is to decide if one wants to scale out or scale up. When a scale out occurs, a new server is added to the existing infrastructure to increase resources. Each option comes with its own costs and bene-fits.

CRITERIA IBM COGNOS SSRS


COMPARING OTHER BI TOOLS IN THE MARKET

Good for medium enterprises. It includes reporting, dashboards, data discovery and visualization across the organi-zation. It has particularly strong mobile capabilities.

MICROSTRATEGY

Pentaho is a solid open-source platform, and the data integration capabilities are particularly strong. This would be a good choice for companies that need to blend and integrate high-volume data from a wide range of structured and unstructured sources.

PENTAHO

Is an enterprise-level BI system best suited to larger companies, and companies already using SAP enterprise appli-cations.

SAP BO

SAP BusinessObjects Lumira is an effective visualization and data exploration tool for business users if they are already in the SAP ecosystem.

SAP LUMERA

It is designed for companies with a need to process disparate data sources or large data volumes without heavy reliance on an IT organization. It also provides self-service analytics tools.

SISENSE

Jaspersoft is an open-source product suite, with particular strength in reporting and analysis, and an intuitive user interface.

TIBCO JASPERSOFT

Zoho Reports is a suitable reporting tool for small and mid-sized companies looking for a relatively inexpensive SaaS BI solution.

ZOHO REPORTS

QlikView is a good choice for companies with developer or power analyst resources to build reports and dash-boards. Qlik Sense is an excellent tool for Business analysts with its ease of use and device agnostic UI. Any end user can create complex dashboards very easily.

QLIK

An excellent tool for business analysts, allowing them to do discovery and visualization on data from a large number of data sources with ease.

TABLEAU


This paper focuses on the differences between 2 reporting solutions SSRS and Cognos and the need to migrate from one solution to the other (Cognos->SSRS). The major differentiating factor is the cost and availability of trained resources. Generally speaking, licensing for Microsoft is deter-mined on server instance model whereas Cognos licensing is dependent on the number of users. Although SQL server along with SharePoint offer a quality BI solution, you cannot undermine the enter-prise capability of IBM Cognos.

CONCLUSION

https://www.captechconsulting.com/library captech/blogs/business-ob-

jects-vs-ssrs-which-one-is-right-for-you/dmbi20white20paper20bi20tools.pdf

http://www.bimonkey.com/2010/02/migrating-from-cognos-to-microsoft-bi/

https://www.eduonix.com/blog/web-programming-tutorials/introduction-to-sql-server-reporting-services-ssrs/

http://www.arcplan.com/en/blog/2014/03/examples-of-business-intelligence-use-cases/

http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSRL5J_1.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_cr_

rptstd.10.1.1.doc/c_cr_rptstd_intrd_xml_format.html

http://www.bimonkey.com/2010/11/migrating-from-cognos-to-microsoft-bi-revisited/

http://beyondrelational.com/modules/2/blogs/109/posts/11173/generating-an-ssrs-report-from-an-

xml-datasource.aspx

http://cognossiva.blogspot.in/2013/01/cognos-architecture.html

https://www.lntinfotech.com/Brochures/RKonvertTM.pdf

https://www.trustradius.com/guides/business-intelligence/2016/about-this-guide

http://www.buyalicence.com/cognos-licences/large-enterprises/

http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWGN-

W_10.1.0/com.ibm.swg.im.cognos.crn_arch.10.1.0.doc/crn_arch_id2892arch_ScalabilityPlanning.html

https://www.simple-talk.com/sql/reporting-services/sql-server-reporting-services-basics-building-ssrs-report

http://www.cursor-distribution.de/en/distribution/sales-cognos/price-lists-cognos

http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecen-

ter/SS73R8_9.3.0/com.ibm.help.wms.reports.doc/WMS_Advantages_of_Cognos_8_BI_84.html

REFERENCES

Jayaprakash heads the Business Intelli-gence Practice at Nous Infosystems. With an M.Phil degree in Applied Mathe-matics, Jayaprakash has been in the industry for over 15 years with extensive experience in the Business Intelligence space. As part of the Nous Business Intelligence Center of Competence (BI COC), Jayaprakash has developed and mentored a strong team of BI Consultants in Data Warehouse Design and Develop-ment, ETL, Data Migration, Report Migra-tion, Legacy to modern DB / ETL / Report-ing technology migration and Data Visual-ization. He has been pivotal in building frameworks, and re-usable components in the areas of Data and Reports Migration and Data validation. He has also been providing BI advisory services including architecting and consulting across geog-raphies.

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