COGNOS Business Intelligence Series 7

Chapter 1: Enterprise Reporting
PowerPlay Enterprise Server is the Cognos solution for enterprise OLAP (on-line analytical
processing) reporting. It offers
• a centralized OLAP application server for Web, Windows, Excel, and mobile users
• a scalable architecture to meet the growing needs of the enterprise
• flexible deployment options to support your existing Windows servers, UNIX servers, and
installed databases
• centralized administration from any platform on the network
• LDAP-based security to control access to data, or portions of the data, depending on the user
• automatic load balancing using distributed processing of user requests
• a browser-based portal to organize access to all your business intelligence information
How Enterprise-wide Deployment Works
Enterprise-wide deployment means making the technology available to everyone in your
organization. Users can access reports and cubes at will, explore and analyze the data, and then
share or publish new reports back to the server. When new data is published, it immediately
becomes available to all users.
Because PowerPlay Enterprise Server handles simultaneous requests from any client type (Web or
Windows) to any cube or report, users can access the data they want when they want it.
If security is a concern, you can deploy cubes that are user class protected, granting user privileges
to specified drill-down levels in the multidimensional cube data.
Enterprise-wide deployment consists of the following:
• All PowerPlay systems start with a multidimensional data source (p. 13) called a cube. You
can use cubes from several OLAP providers, including the Cognos PowerCube.
• Using PowerPlay Enterprise - Server Administration, you then publish cubes and reports to
one or more application servers, depending on the anticipated load. You can add mirror
references to cubes and reports on another computer where the processing takes place,
administering all your cubes and reports from one computer.
• You can specify cube and report attributes such as drill-through URLs, the maximum number
of processes to use, and whether a cube is available from the Web or Windows, or from both.
• You can publish cubes and reports to Upfront or Cognos Connection, the Cognos portals.
Alternatively, report authors can publish cubes and reports directly to Upfront from any
PowerPlay client application (PowerPlay for Windows, PowerPlay for Excel, or PowerPlay
Web). Published cubes are automatically registered with PowerPlay Enterprise Server and
saved in a common format that is accessible by any PowerPlay client application.
• Users open deployed cubes and reports by connecting to the PowerPlay server with either a
URL, such as from Upfront, or a server name (from Windows client applications). Users can
also drill through to details in other applications or in other cubes located in the same
environment (Web or Windows).
PowerPlay Client Applications
The Enterprise Server client applications belong to the PowerPlay family of products. When you
deploy cubes to PowerPlay Enterprise Server, you can provide analysis and reporting capabilities
to Windows or Web-based client applications from a centralized production environment.
PowerPlay users can use the following applications.
Enterprise Server Guide 9