Architecture for business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise

This article describes the physical architecture for application services that all enable you to implement business intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint Server.

This numbered list corresponds to the numbers in the following diagram. The diagram shows a farm deployment with four servers and the application services that you can use for business intelligence. To learn more about when you might use each service, see Choose the right business intelligence technology to suit your style (white paper).

1. The front-end Web servers run on Internet Information Services (IIS) and host the Web Parts for business intelligence services, Web services, and the proxy that are required for communication between the client and the service applications. A service application is a wrapper for the middle-tier business logic for an instance of the service. Your configuration of the application server and how many services are hosted will depend on the size of the farm and the number of users who need access. To learn more about services and topologies for SharePoint Server 2010, see the model called "Services in SharePoint 2010 Products" in Technical diagrams (SharePoint Server 2010).

   The four services that are shown in the diagram are discussed in the following articles.

   • What's New (Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=185271)

   • Visio Services overview (SharePoint Server 2010)

   • What's new for Excel Services (SharePoint Server 2010)

   • What's new for PerformancePoint Services (SharePoint Server 2010)

   Note

   A running Secure Store Service application and Proxy are required to store the Unattended Service account password. To learn more about the unattended service account and how it uniquely applies to each service, see documentation for each service.

2. Each application service stores content in SharePoint Server by using a document library, site collection template (such as the Business Intelligence Center), or site lists in SharePoint Server for viewing reports. The Business Intelligence Center is created from an Enterprise site collection template. PerformancePoint Services is unique because it has a dashboard authoring tool that is accessed from the Business Intelligence Center or in an enabled Web site.

   You can also use PerformancePoint Services to export dashboard objects such as charts, grids, scorecards, PivotTable reports to Excel 2010 or PowerPoint 2010. The resulting dashboard from authoring in PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer, can position report views from each service.

3. Report authoring for Visio and Excel Services Excel 2010 occurs in their respective Office client applications. SQL Server Report Builder 3.0 and PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer are client-side applications that are started from the Web.

4. Following the diagram is a partial list of possible data sources for business intelligence products or features and their respective business intelligence services. For information about additional data sources and provider types, see each product's individual documentation.

Data sources for business intelligence in SharePoint Server

See Also

Other Resources

Resource Center: Business Intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010