SQL Azure Reporting Services Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

• Highly available, the cloud services platform has built-in high availability and fault tolerance
  
• Scalable, the cloud services platform automatically scales up and down
  
• Secure, your reports and SQL Azure databases are on a safe place in the cloud
  
• Cost effective, you don’t have to set up servers and you don’t have to invest in managing servers
  
• Use the same tools you use today to develop your solutions. Just develop your reports in BIDS or Report Builder and deploy to Azure
  

Disadvantages are:

• SQL Azure databases are the only supported data sources in the first version, more data sources are expected to come
  
• No developer extensibility in the first version, so no custom data sources, assemblies, report items or authentication
  
• No subscriptions or scheduled delivery
  
• No Windows Authentication, only SQL Azure username/password is supported in the first version, similar to SQL Azure database. When SQL Azure database gets Windows Authentication, Azure Reporting will follow
  

What they added in CTP

• The following new features are available in the new CTP:
  
• Improved availability and performance statistics.
  
• Ability to self-provision a SQL Azure Reporting server.
  
• Windows Azure Management Portal updates to easily manage users and reports deployed to SQL Azure Reporting.
  
• Availability of the service in all Microsoft Windows Azure datacenters around the world.
  
• Official Microsoft support in this new CTP release.
  
• Greater access for customers with no separate registration process required to use the new CTP.
  
• developers can now author reports
  
• Combined with the SQL Azure Data Sync (also in CTP release), SQL Azure Reporting enalbes new hybrid IT scenarios - for example, customers can schedule automatic synchronization of on-premises databases with SQL Azure, and then deploy cloud-based BI reports based on the synchronized cloud-based data sources.