My first thoughts when I heard about the Datazen acquisition were…How is it different? When do I choose to use it? What are its strengths? I summarized some high level use cases in this blog entry I published on the BlueGranite site. In this post I would like to go through some detailed comparisons between Datazen, Reporting Services, and Power View. Note that I’ve chosen to focus on Power View rather than Power BI as a whole because Power View is the primary visualization component within Power BI (whereas Power Query and Power Pivot are more about data shaping and data modeling which isn’t as directly relevant when compared to Datazen and Reporting Services). For brevity I’ve omitted Excel and Performance Point from the comparison as well. Also, Power BI for Office 365 is *not* addressed here since it’s being phased out for Power BI v2 – any Power BI references here refer to the Power BI Preview also commonly known as v2.
References below are applicable to:
-Datazen Version 3.0
-Reporting Services in SQL Server 2014
-Power View for Excel 2013
-Power View for SharePoint 2013
-Power View in Power BI (v2)
This analysis is as of mid-June 2015, and will certainly evolve and change as Datazen becomes more integrated in the Microsoft ecosystem, as Power BI evolves, and with SQL Server 2016 coming out soon.
Overview
|
|
Datazen |
Reporting Services |
Power View / Power BI |
|
Primary purpose |
Traditional structured reporting (pre-defined queries and drill paths) |
Traditional structured reporting (pre-defined queries and drill paths) |
Data discovery / interactive exploration |
|
Architectural mode |
Standalone (supports Excel file sources only) or Datazen Server (opens up many more data sources, sharing, mobile delivery, refreshing, use of live tiles, use of KPIs) |
Native Mode or SharePoint Mode |
Power View for Excel or Power BI Designer or Power View for SharePoint
Both Excel and Power BI Design can be used standalone or in conjunction with the Power BI portal (SaaS cloud app) |
|
Installation components |
Server: Datazen Server (core service repository is built on RavenDB)
Client: Datazen Publisher (available in Windows store)
Mobile viewer apps: Available for iOS 7+, Android 4.1+, Win8+, Win Phone 7.1+ |
Native Mode: Report Manager with ReportServer
SharePoint Mode: SharePoint with ReportServer
Client: Visual Studio with SSDT or BIDS and/or Report Builder (click-once app) |
Power View for Excel (enabled in Excel) or Power BI Designer (standalone download) or Power View for SharePoint (part of SSRS in SharePoint)
|
Deployment and Delivery
|
|
Datazen |
Reporting Services |
Power View / Power BI |
|
Delivery approach |
On-premises (or IaaS) |
On-premises (or IaaS) |
Hybrid (full functionality) or On-premises (subset of functionality) |
|
Access types |
Native mobile apps (calls REST APIs) or Web browser viewer (HTML5) or Mobile device chrome shell or Embedding in a custom application |
Report Manager web app (Native mode) or SharePoint |
Excel (client) or SharePoint or Power BI portal (SaaS cloud app) |
|
Mobile delivery capabilities |
Native apps: iOS, Android, Windows + HTML5 in browser |
No native apps
Partial support across mobile devices and browsers (requires SQL Server 2012 SP1+) |
Native apps: iOS, Windows, Android + HTML5 in browser
(Excel and SharePoint still based on Silverlight) |
|
Organization of content |
Hub in the Datazen Enterprise Server |
Native mode: folders in Report Manager
SharePoint mode: sites, document libraries, folders in SharePoint |
Structuring content across functional areas and/or user groups is not yet released in Power BI v2 |
|
Support for anonymous users (public) |
Yes (guest account) |
Yes (custom authentication) |
Not yet |
|
Support for row-level security |
Yes (personalized data views) |
Yes (if data source is using Windows authentication; not applicable to subscriptions which require ID/PW to be specified) |
Yes (only if using SSAS Tabular data source in Power BI v2 which passes EffectiveUserName) |
Development
|
|
Datazen |
Reporting Services |
Power View / Power BI |
|
Design approach |
Design-First (layout with simulated data to refine design before associating layout elements to data views) or If preferred, Data-First |
Data-First (report connects to an embedded or shared dataset query) |
Data-First (report connects to an existing model or data source) |
|
Development environment |
Dashboards: Datazen Publisher (a Win 8+ app also known as Datazen Designer)
KPIs, Data Connections & Data Views: Control Panel (web app) |
Report Designer (Visual Studio/SSDT/BIDS) or Report Builder (click-once app) |
Power BI Designer or Power View for Excel or Power View for SharePoint (web) |
|
Typical content creator |
Dashboards: IT developer or Power user
Data Connections & Data Views: IT developer or Proficient power user (need to be able to write SQL, MDX, or DAX queries as there’s no drag & drop UI) |
IT developer or Proficient power user |
Data analyst (created purposely to have a minimal learning curve) |
|
Creation of underlying report query |
Need to write query which is contained within a data view (need to write syntax) |
Need to create query which is contained within a dataset (can write syntax or use a UI) |
Drag and drop (cannot write specific underlying query) |
|
Designer |
‘Snap to Grid’ system (ex: 5 rows x 6 columns)
3 layouts: Master, Tablet, and Phone |
Free-form layout (with precise alignment ability in body, header, and footer) |
Free-form layout (without precise alignment ability) |
|
File extension |
.datazen |
.RDL |
.XLSX (Excel) or .PBIX (Power BI Designer) or .RDLX (Power View for SharePoint) |
Features
|
|
Datazen |
Reporting Services |
Power View / Power BI |
|
Parameterization |
3 types: Time navigator, Scorecard grid, Selection list or tree |
Parameter pane |
Slicers (placed on the report body) or Filters pane (page level or for individual table/chart) |
|
Color palette |
Style selections applicable to entire dashboard
A custom color palette can be defined using configuration files if desired |
Standard color selections for individual charts
Can customize colors using custom color palettes, expressions, or custom code |
Style selections applicable to entire report |
|
Pixel-perfect formatting control |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
Switch chart types on the fly |
No |
No (potential workaround with parameterization and show/hide properties) |
Yes |
|
Interactive cross-filtering and highlighting behavior |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Calculations and expressions |
Straightforward options (Sum, Avg, Count, Min, Max, First, Last) |
Many options within the dataset, expressions, and custom code |
Straightforward options (Sum, Avg, Min, Max, Count) |
|
Built-in maps |
Bubble map, Gradient heat map, Range stop heat map, Custom ESRI shapefile |
Bubble map, Filled map, Line map, Marker map, Custom ESRI shapefile |
Bubble map, Filled map
Uses Bing Maps API |
|
Multiple data sources allowed per individual report / dashboard |
Yes (needs a join key in some cases) |
Yes (one data source per dataset is general rule, though a tablix expression can reference another dataset and/or lookups can be utilized) |
No (workaround is to integrate data first in underlying data model) |
|
Shared datasets (i.e., reusable queries across multiple reports / dashboards) |
Yes (data views on the server can be shared within the scope of a hub) |
Yes (embedded dataset can be promoted to be a shared dataset) |
Yes (In V2, datasets published to the Power BI service are independent objects from reports and dashboards |
|
Shared report elements (i.e., reusable charts and tables across multiple reports / dashboards) |
Report elements: Not shareable across multiple master views or multiple dashboards (tablet and phone views utilize some or all elements from a single master view)
KPIs: KPIs are independent of dashboard elements; a KPI can drill to a related dashboard |
Yes (report parts which are elements such as tables, charts, gauges, images, maps, parameters, etc. published for reuse) |
Yes (Power BI v2 portal supports the ability to ‘pin’ a report element onto one or more dashboards after the report has been published to the Power BI site) |
|
KPI repository |
Yes (defined in the Control Panel web app) |
Indirectly (a KPI can be used from the underlying SSAS or Power Pivot data model, or an indicator can be defined inside of an individual report) |
Indirectly (a KPI can be referenced from the underlying SSAS or Power Pivot data model) |
|
Drill-down (additional detail on the same report) |
No |
Yes |
Yes (basic; affects single object on page only) |
|
Drill-through (additional detail on a different report) |
To another dashboard or To custom URL (incl to other reporting tools such as SSRS or Power View for SharePoint)
Requires the dashboard to be published & not in standalone mode |
To another report or To custom URL (incl to other reporting tools) |
Custom URL (only on Dashboard tiles) |
|
Alerts |
No |
Yes (data-driven alerts in SharePoint mode only) |
Yes (simple high/low alerting on a single numeric tile - available in v2 mobile app only) |
|
Subscriptions / automated report delivery |
No |
Yes (E-mail, file share, SharePoint doc library, preload a cache) |
No |
|
Snapshot reporting |
No |
Yes (report execution snapshot to improve performance, or report history snapshot to store report as of a point in time) |
No (even a Power Point export from SharePoint retains a live connection so it’s not an ideal tool for a point-in-time snapshot) |
|
Pinning of report elements |
KPIs can be pinned to Windows 8 start page as a live tile
Dashboards can be pinned to Windows 8 start page as a shortcut to open dashboard |
No |
Yes (in Power BI v2 portal, an item on a report can be pinned to one or more dashboard pages) |
|
Support for Analysis Services Multidimensional |
Yes (requires a flattened MDX query to be provided; Datazen ignores items on the rows-workaround can be calculated members for display of attributes or use of DIMENSION PROPERTIES MEMBER_CAPTION) |
Yes (requires a flattened dataset with only two axes) |
Yes if data brought into embedded model first (i.e., not direct connect in Power BI V2). Live connectivity supported in Power View for SharePoint |
|
Support for Analysis Services Tabular |
Yes (requires a DAX query to be provided) |
Yes |
Yes |
Integration
|
|
Datazen |
Reporting Services |
Power View / Power BI |
|
URL-based report launching |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes (if published to SharePoint or to the Power BI portal) |
|
Embedded BI in a custom app |
Yes |
Yes |
Not yet |
|
Embedded in SharePoint |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes (if using Power View for SharePoint) |
Performance and System Monitoring
|
|
Datazen |
Reporting Services |
Power View / Power BI |
|
System administration |
Datazen Server Control Panel (web-based) |
Report Server, Report Manager, SharePoint |
N/A for now |
|
Server-side caching |
Cached data views (vs. real-time data views) can be created on a schedule
Dashboard thumbnails and definitions cached
A shared cache service, such as Azure Cache, can be employed |
Reports can be cached on a schedule to improve performance of longer-running reports |
Caching in place for continued display of dashboard tiles (thumbnails) in Power BI portal (refreshed automatically every ~15 minutes) |
|
Mobile app caching |
Offline mobile access of dashboard with background sync at specified intervals (an alternative to real-time which does not cache locally) |
N/A |
Data saved in the app cache for offline mobile access |
|
Redundant storage of data along with report itself |
No (if using a data source from the Enterprise Server)
Yes (stores copy of data if running in standalone mode & Excel is the data source, this data is imported & stored in the report definition) |
No |
No (if utilizing Power View in conjunction with supported direct-connection sources)
Yes (stores copy of data if utilizing Power View in conjunction with an embedded Excel data model in the same file) |
|
Execution logging (reports executed by whom, run times, etc) |
Not built-in (workaround is to build a custom activity tracking table) |
Yes (report server DB execution logs) |
Not available |
|
Scale-out |
Yes (most of the Enterprise Server services can be distributed) |
Yes (multiple distributed report server instances with a single report server DB) |
No |