Cognos to Power BI Paginated Reports Migration030820

- A Brief Overview

Cognos to Power BI Paginated Reports Migration

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract .............................................................................................................. 3

Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3

Cognos ................................................................................................................ 4

Why migrate from Cognos to Power BI Paginated Reports? .................... 6

Cognos & Power BI which gives better ROI? ............................................... 8

Overview of the other BI tools in the market .............................................. 9

Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 9

2nousinfo.comCognos to Power BI Paginated Reports Migration - A Brief Overview


AbstractThis paper provides an overview of a business intelligence reporting solution using Cognos and outlines the process of migrating from Cognos® to PowerBI® Paginated reports. The write-up will elaborate on the architecture, features, capabilities of Power BI and Cognos reporting tools and offer a comparison between the two in terms of how they stack up against each other and other reporting tools in the market. We will further cover the challenges involved in migrating reports from Cognos to Power BI Paginated reports, which would enable enterprises to make an informed decision.

IntroductionBusiness Intelligence (BI) reporting refers to the process of receiving or providing information in the form of reports to end-users, organizations, or applications through a BI solution. BI reporting facilitates the capturing of results from a BI solution. It is a preconfigured function, feature, or component within a BI solution. Based on the parameters set, BI reporting is generally an automated process that captures and reports on analyzed data. These reports can be in the form of statistical data, visual charts, and standard textual content.

In the competitive BI landscape, there is a lot of focus on obtaining reports or dashboards in seconds rather than minutes. The BI market is overcrowded, with most reporting tools offering standard features like security, production, distribution, deployment, and support. However, while choosing the right tool, the differentiating factors include ease of usability, report quality, scalability, and performance.


CognosCognos is a leading enterprise reporting solution that enables users to create reports, analyze their data, and gather valuable business insights. IBM acquired Cognos in 2008.

Architecture To understand how Cognos enables users to fulfill their BI needs, let us take a look at its architecture. Cognos has a three-tier architecture - namely the presentation tier, the business tier, and the data tier.

Web UI

Web Server

Application Server

JDBC API JDBC

ContentStore Rpt DB Metric

Store

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Presentation tier: The web server present in this tier handles requests from the user and responds to the user. After receiving a request, it delegates the request to the dispatcher, which processes it and sends the response to the web server that is transferred back to the user.

Business tier: The business tier comprises of multiple Cognos services and BI servers. The dispatcher receives a request from the webserver and delegates it to the appropriate services.

Data tier: This tier contains a content store. The BI server creates content store tables in the content store with the help of a content manager and stores the packages, reports, folders, scheduling, views, etc. in the content store.

ImplementationAny Cognos implementation requires three components, which can be installed on a single server or multiple servers. In a basic distributed install, one component would be installed per server.

Gateway: This is the first component accessed (invisible to the user) when a user accesses Cognos.

Cognos BI App server: This server consists of app components, dispatcher, and content manager. The dispatcher manages several different Cognos services such as report service, log server, and many services like batch report service and delivery service. The content manager manages the Cognos content DB, and all requests to access information from the content DB is made through the content manager.

Cognos Content DB: The Content DB holds the metadata.

FeaturesReporting

Usage environments include scheduled delivery, real-time desktop, and real-time web

Data layout options (tabular, matrixed and financial)

Data Analysis

OLAP, what-if Scenario?

Predictive Modelling

Usability

Mobile platform support

Highly scalable and ETL toolset

BenefitsCognos architecture is structured and calibrated for optimal performance. This allows enterprises to scale the app to support their growing user base.

With Integration of IBM’s SPSS®, it offers predictive and statistical capabilities to end-users.

Cognos uses an open architecture that leverages XML, SOAP, and WSDL.

Multilingual capabilities automatically deliver reports in the users’ native language.



LimitationsThe initial setup isn't as simple as running the installer and activating it. Adjustments to the server setup may be necessary before it is up and running.

Browser support can be tricky. Compatibility is best with Internet Explorer, but specific browser setting changes can cause issues. Other browsers' compatibility can be questionable due to their significantly more frequent updates.

It works best with actual databases and not so well with CSV or other file formats. An ODBC or JDBC driver can be used to treat files like databases, but native support is somewhat limited.

Using external ODBC drivers can be done with 32-bit drivers only.

Having a sandbox environment on a developer's machine isn't feasible due to how Cognos installs on a system.

Why migrate from Cognos to Power BI Paginated Reports?

Due to ever-changing business needs and obsolete technologies, organizations are compelled to move from one reporting format to another.

There are multiple reasons why enterprises may want to move from Cognos to Power BI Paginated reports. Each suite has its strengths and weaknesses. On balance, there is probably not enough of a rationale on either side to migrate from one to the other, unless addressing specific business needs.

Some of the reasons businesses may choose to migrate Cognos reports are:

Licensing: Cognos is a suite of separate applications that need to be licensed separately, as opposed to Power BI premium/embedded, a single product for reports.

HIGH TCOCOGNOS

Lack of Proper Documentation

Longer Turnaround Times

High Manual Efforts

Additional Software/ Hardware

RequirementsDifficulty in Validating Pre &

Post States


Cognos upgrade: Businesses may be looking at the cost of moving to Cognos 11 from lower versions of Cognos and not seeing enough ROI potential. Therefore migration of Cognos Reports to Power BI Paginated Reports would be a much more cost-effective option.

Skills availability: There are more Microsoft BI developers available and are generally cost-effective to employ and train.

Application integration: Microsoft applications are quite open in connectivity, customization, and integration with other applications, whereas Cognos is a closed box.

While these might be limitations, to using Cognos, businesses must take note that each stack has its strengths and weaknesses, and each one may address specific business needs better than the other.

Implementing Migration to Power BI PaginatedThe Cognos report needs to be in XML format for the report to be converted to a Power BI paginated report. Open a Cognos report via IBM Cognos Report Studio, go to Tools menu and select ‘Show Specification.’ Obtain the XML equivalent of the Cognos report from here.

Convert the Cognos Report XML into RDL format, which follows Power BI Paginated report structure. This is also an XML structure. Queries and data can be built dynamically within the report using expressions.

The generated RDL can be published to either Power BI Premium or Embedded based on the licensing availability. Generally, if the reports are to be embedded within a corporate portal or an application, Power BI Embedded is the right licensing option. If reports have to be directly accessed, then Power BI Premium is the right option.

Drawbacks of the migrationWhen the report data is in XML format, some drawbacks of the migration are as follows:

Unless specified in the query, data types will be returned as strings in XML. The data provided will not automatically detect the type of information.

Maps and charts should have a minimum of one dimension and measure for XML to be generated.

If a report contains more than one data container, such as a crosstab and a list, and both containers use the same query, only the list's output is produced.

To overcome these drawbacks, the user or service provider should have an excellent understanding of Cognos as well as XML to convert XML data into a Power BI paginated report.


Pricing is dependent on the size of the business and the specific Cognos tools/CPU/roles required. Cognos Enterprise Explorer TM1 comes at $19300 approx.

Unlike other major vendors, enterprises don’t have to pay for expensive add-ons to run their most demanding applications because every feature and capability is already in-built. Power BI Report Server is free with SQL Server 2017 Enterprise editions that have software assurance. Power BI Premium Embedded license starts at $735 and Power BI Premium starts at $4999 for unlimited users.

Tool Pricing

Highly technical and expensive resources are required. Resource Skill Set /Cost

Lesser technical experience required. However, DB experience is preferred.

In memory aggregatesExtensible visualization enhancementsUser interface profiles

BI CapabilityR ConnectivityIn-memory analyticsAdvanced data miningAdvanced tabular

IBM Cognos BI was designed for scalability. It scales vertically using more powerful computers, and horizontally using a higher number of computers.

ScalabilityThe first step to take after deciding to scale reports is to determine if one wants to scale out or scale-up. When a scale-out occurs, a new server is added to the existing infrastructure to increase resources. Each option comes with its costs and benefits.

CRITERIA IBM COGNOS REPORTSPOWER BI PAGINATED

REPORTS

Cognos & Power BI which gives better ROI?

MicroStrategy is useful for medium enterprises. It includes reporting, dashboards, data discovery, and visualization across the organization. It has strong mobile capabilities.

MicroStrategy®

Pentaho is a robust open-source platform, with strong data integration capabilities. Pentaho is the right choice for companies that need to blend and integrate high-volume data from a wide range of structured and unstructured sources.

Pentaho (TM)

SAP BO is an enterprise-level BI system best suited for larger companies and companies that are already using SAP enterprise applications.

SAP® BusinessObjects™

SAP Lumira is a useful visualization and data exploration tool for business users if they are already in the SAP ecosystem.

SAP Lumira®

Sisense is best suited for companies that work on processing disparate data sources or large volumes without heavily relying on an IT organization. It also provides self-service analytics tools.

Sisense®

Jaspersoft is an open-source product suite, with a strong focus on reporting and analysis, and an intuitive user interface.

TIBCO® Jaspersoft

Zoho Reports is a suitable reporting tool for small and mid-sized companies looking for a relatively inexpensive SaaS BI solution.

Zoho® Reports

QlikView® is an excellent choice for companies with developers or power analyst resources to build reports and dashboards. Qlik Sense® is an excellent tool for business analysts with its ease of use and device-agnostic UI. Any end-user can easily create sophisticated dashboards.

Qlik®

Tableau is an excellent tool for business analysts, allowing them to discover and visualize data from a large number of data sources with ease.

Tableau®

Overview of the other BI tools in the market

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Cognos to Power BI Paginated Reports Migration - A Brief Overview © 2020 All Rights Reserved.

ConclusionThe key differentiating factor between Power BI and Cognos is the cost and availability of trained resources. Licensing for Microsoft is determined on the server instance model as well as a user-based model offering flexibility, whereas Cognos licensing is dependent on the number of users. Although Microsoft BI tool stack offers a quality BI solution, you cannot undermine the enterprise capabilities of IBM Cognos.

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Cognos to Power BI Paginated Reports Migration030820