Introduction

In working with SharePoint and with BI, we frequently found that there was no single source of information that could address the needs of both database administrators (DBAs) and SharePoint administrators and developers. With that in mind, we decided to write one.

In fairness, given the pace of the technology we deal with, it’s very difficult to find one source for it all. But, in order to deliver solutions with these modern platforms, one needs to know core business intelligence (BI) concepts as well as core SharePoint BI concepts.

SharePoint is becoming the de facto choice for delivery of BI products for Microsoft. This has been happening ever since the introduction of Visio Services, Business Connectivity Services, Reporting Services, Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services and, as icing on the cake, Power View for interactive analytics.

Even if you are an experienced .NET developer, you’ll find it difficult to find a single book that teaches enough of all these technologies and BI concepts. That’s why we put this book together—to address that unique and fascinating area that is the intersection of BI and SharePoint 2013. The first chapter gets you familiar with enough BI concepts to get you going, even if you have no background in BI. Expert DBAs can skip this chapter. The subsequent chapters focus on each of the core SharePoint BI concepts one by one, and they give you enough examples to explore each of these topics in detail. Moreover, we made it a point not to ignore the administrative side of things. In each chapter, we introduce you to the various facilities in central administration, and we also look at the PowerShell commands relevant to these features.

Writing any book is a lot of work. We hope you find it useful.