Advantages and Disadvantages of SharePoint Integrated SSRS Environment

I have been asked many times whether Native Mode SSRS or SharePoint Integrated SSRS configuration will work in given situation if organization has adpoted both MOSS and SSRS to address their business problems. As with most of all Microsoft technologies, there are various options available and it is for an organization to make decision which technolgoies will work best for them.

The benefits of hosting SharePoint Integrated SSRS mode over traditional Native mode are as following –

• Uniform UI to access reports along with other business documents – No need to access reports using SharePoint and manage using the SSRS report manager. Everything will be done through SharePoint UI.
• An ability to create and manage SSRS reports, SSRS data sources, and SSRS report models from the SharePoint UI.
• Reports stored in the document libraries to enable versioning, workflow capabilities, collaboration, and document management features
• Shared Storage – Report Catalogs stored in the SharePoint Content DBs
• Shared Security – No need to manage security at both SharePoint and Report Manager
• Inherited Governance Policy including SLA, Backup and Restore, Support, High Availability, Disaster Recovery, and Redundancy Policies

The disadvantages of hosting SharePoint Integrated SSRS mode over traditional Native mode are as following –

• Possible additional Software licensing cost for the report servers. It requires installing SharePoint Object Model on the Report Server.
• Can’t use the standard SSRS Report Manager web site to manage and view the SSRS reports. In other words, if you are planning to use SSRS Server for non-sharepoint hosted reports, native mode is better option.

Hope this will help make decision for either Native mode SSRS or SharePoint Integrated SSRS configuration will work in given situation.
Nik