Setting up a series of reports for a client this week on SQL 2008 report server was an interesting experience in how far databases have come since the 1980s. They are now so far from the dba controlled, three week development cycle days of yore, that we are in danger of forgetting why that perceived bottleneck was there.
The interface definitely allows the easy building of front end web based filtered reports. Thoughtful well-designed reports can fulfill many user expectations and requirements on demand. The options available for the parameters of stored procedures are cool, especially when they haven’t taken hours of programming and testing.
But spare a thought for the database department. Their mandate of providing secure 24×7 database access has not decreased but their ability to control how that availability is demanded has increasing the reactivity quotient of their work.
