What Is Crystal Reports Server?

Crystal Reports Server is a relatively new addition to the Crystal Reports product suite. It allows companies to create, manage, and deliver Crystal Reports over the Web or embedded in Enterprise applications. It includes a complete set of reporting services to address all steps in the reporting process, from data access and report design to report delivery and management to portal and application integration to report maintenance. Designed for use on a single server, Crystal Reports Server is ideal for departmental reporting requirements.

On the surface, the Crystal Reports Server looks like BusinessObjects Enterprise. Indeed, Crystal Reports Server provides a rich set of Enterprise-level reporting functions including

• Accessing any data source

• Designing any report

• Delivering and managing reports over the Web

• Integrating reporting with applications and portals

• Maintaining reports with minimal IT overhead

In fact, Crystal Reports Server is built from the same object model as BusinessObjects Enterprise. The following core components are included in the product:

• Report Designer (all drivers and access methods)

• Business Views

• Report publisher

• InfoView web portal interface

• Portal integration kits

• Viewers

• Scheduler

• Security (BOE, Active Directory, LDAP, and NT authentication)

• Software development kits (SDKs)

• Management console

The main differences between Crystal Reports Server and BusinessObjects Enterprise lie in the enterprise-level functionality. BusinessObjects Enterprise is a multiserver Business Intelligence (BI) platform designed to address large-scale reporting and BI requirements. Fault-tolerance, load balancing, scalability, and reliability are provided by the multiserver capability of the environment. BusinessObjects Enterprise also provides enterprise-level features such as auditing, Crystal Reports Explorer, and the new Encyclopedia and Process Tracker.

Crystal Reports Server is a single-server enterprise reporting solution that delivers Crystal Reports over the Web. Web Intelligence, OLAP Intelligence, or other BI content are not supported.

Compared to BO Enterprise, Crystal Reports Server is targeted more toward addressing the reporting infrastructure needs of small- to middle-sized companies. It has the following limitations over BO Enterprise:

• Concurrent Access License (CAL) limitation Crystal Reports Server is limited to a maximum of 20 concurrent users. An error message will be displayed when the administrator attempts to enter key codes that exceed 20 CAL licenses.

• Scalability limitations Crystal Reports Server can run on only a single server and there is a license limiting the installation to a maximum four-processor server.

• Platform limitation Crystal Reports Server only runs on Windows, whereas BO Enterprise runs on other operating systems, such as AIX and Solaris.

• Content limitation Crystal Reports Server runs only Crystal Reports; it does not run Web Intelligence reports.