Mastering SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Infrastructure Design [Paperback]

Joseph L. Jorden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470114592 | ISBN-13: 978-0470114599 | Publication Date: August 6, 2007 | Edition: 1

• Reporting Services is a powerful tool for SQL Server 2005 database administrators, developers, and other IT professionals, enabling them to make sense of the immense amount of data generated by enterprises of all sizes
• Shows readers how to create, manage, and distribute information as well as how to design, produce, and distribute reports that meet the needs of the stakeholder
• Contains practical insights and real-world solutions not found in other books
• Bridges the gap between those who manage data and those who need it

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Design, Produce, and Distribute Reports That Mean Something

Today's DBAs need to know how to work with users, management, and key stakeholders to identify organizational needs and leverage the technology to meet them. Covering intermediate to advanced subjects, such as performance tuning, this book shows you how to build a reporting infrastructure that can be used in any environment.

Focusing on six key principles simplicity, clarity, generality, automation, and communications all vital elements of meaningful reports, you'll learn everything you need to know to design a report infrastructure that integrates the best practices of reporting systems. When you're finished, you will have a roadmap that enables you to help corporate managers make the most of this technology.

Loaded with real-world examples, this book arms you with guidelines that apply equally well to small businesses and mega-corporations.

Coverage includes:

• Assessing user needs and managing user/corporate expectations

• Managing change and satisfying stakeholders

• Integrating RS with other SS2005 components

• Building and running reliable, scalable reporting systems

• Creating and enforcing security policies

• Performing reviews and assessing report effectiveness

• Writing user documentation

• Justifying technology or report value to management

• Extending Reporting Services programmatically

Build the Right Reporting Infrastructure For Your Organization

Tailor Role-Based Security To Fit Your Environment

Use Reporting Services With Business Intelligence Technology

Define Report Data Sources and Datasets

Plan a Disaster Recovery Strategy

About the Author

Joseph L. Jorden, MCP, MCSE, MCTS, is a senior consultant for Allin Consulting and a developer of database applications. He was among the first 100 people to achieve the MCSE+I certification from Microsoft and an early qualifier for the MCSE on Windows 2000. During his years as an MCT, Jorden taught Microsoft Official Curriculum courses on SQL Server 6.5, 7.0 and 2000. He has spoken at PASS conferences and Comdex, and has written numerous articles for various publications. He has also written and tech-edited several Sybex books, most of them on SQL Server.

Product Details

• Paperback: 486 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; 1 edition (August 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470114592
• ISBN-13: 978-0470114599
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,464,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Light on technical content, September 11, 2008

By 

James W. Anderson (Alpharetta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mastering SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Infrastructure Design (Paperback)

This is a pretty helpful resource overall, but if you buy this book, just skip the first part entirely and start with Chapter 7. For some inexplicable reason the author felt it important to regurgitate basic project management and planning concepts in the first part, which anyone in IT will already know or at least have other, better references for. So basically, the first hundred pages are a waste of space, in my opinion.

The rest of the book does a pretty good job covering SRS features, including installation aspects, ongoing maintenance, and performance tuning and troubleshooting. If you're new to Reporting Services, or have only a basic or intermediate working knowledge of the product, this book does have some good info to share. I do wish that the author had taken the time to illustrate more of the architectural aspects of the product, or at least go into detail beyond simple "here's the SQL Server and there's the Reporting Services server" with a line between them. Show the reader how the different pieces of SRS fit together and work, and illustrate the relationships between the different reporting objects, data sources, and so on. There are lots of screen prints to show end user scenarios, but the book is surprisingly light on architectural concepts, something I expected more in a book that touts itself as a resource on "infrastructure design."

In summary, it's a pretty good technical resource overall, but could do without the entire first part and could use more detailed diagrams of the product architecture.

Also, and this is a slam against the publisher and not the author: a better quality grade of paper would be appreciated. The MSRP for this text is nearly sixty bucks, yet it was printed on the cheapest pulp there is. My copy is less than three months old and already the pages have yellowed and taken on a musty "library smell." I have O'Reilly and MS Press books that are ten years old or better and the pages are still white and "stink-free." I know, a petty gripe, but these books aren't cheap so is that too much to ask?

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nuts and bolts for creating reports, February 11, 2008

By 

Lefty "Lefty" (TX USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mastering SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Infrastructure Design (Paperback)

The book has a lot of good information and presents the nuts and bolts of creating reports in the Reporting Services. I found the layout and the descriptions to be very good.