SSAS - cubes and data mining (SQL Server 2008 R2 or 2008 either 32-bit or 64-bit - 2008 R2 64-bit for PowerPivot for SharePoint)

 

PowerPivot for Excel - self-service cubes (Excel 2010 either 32-bit or 64-bit, PowerPivot for Excel)

 

Data Mining Add-in for Excel - self-service data mining (Excel 2010 or 2007 32-bit, Data Mining Add-in, SSAS)

 

PerformancePoint 2010 - the ultimate in BI visualization (SharePoint 2010, SSAS) - Microsoft 15-minute demo of PerformancePoint

 

 

Excel is needed to host PowerPivot for Excel, the Data Mining Add-in for Excel, and to browse SSAS cubes in pivot tables. You must have Excel 2010 for PowerPivot for Excel - it doesn't work in Excel 2007. You can use either 32-bit or 64-bit Excel for PowerPivot or SSAS cube pivot tables. You must use 32-bit Excel for data mining.

 

If you are a developer working from home, try the free trial version of Office 2010 (www.microsoft.com) or the inexpensive Student edition.

 

 

This is a free download from www.powerpivot.com (32-bit and 64-bit versions are available).

 

 

This is a free download from www.sqlserverdatamining.com (only a 32-bit version is available, as I write it's for Excel 2007. It should work in Excel 2010 32-bit, but I get the odd glitch when Excel tries to disable the Add-in). You will need SSAS (see SQL Server) to run the mining behind Excel.

 

 

This is quite important! The R2 version is essential if you want PowerPivot for SharePoint and SSRS reports on PowerPivot. If you want PowerPivot for SharePoint, you have to install on a 64-bit machine with Windows 2008 R2 and Active Directory - that means a domain controller, if you are working one a stand-alone machine at home. If you don't need PowerPivot for SharePoint then you can use all of the rest of SQL Server on a 32-bit machine running Windows 7 or Vista. SQL Server gives you the ability to create relational star schema, SSAS (for cubes and data mining), SSIS (for ETL), SSRS (for reports), BIDS (to create your BI objects), and PowerPivot for SharePoint (provided you have SharePoint 2010).

 

 

You will need a 64-bit machine running Windows 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, and SharePoint 2010. PowerPivot for SharePoint is part of SQL Server 2008 R2. PowerPivot for SharePoint is required if you wish to deploy PowerPivot for Excel workbooks to SharePoint and have SSRS and PowerPivot working together. Please note, you can't install PowerPivot for SharePoint on a client OS.

 

 

 

PerformancePoint 2010 is part of SharePoint 2010. You will need a 64-bit machine and SharePoint 2010. This will work on Windows 7 or Vista SP2 (64-bit), if you don't have Windows 2008 R2. You have to tweak the SharePoint installation to accomplish this. You can find instructions in Chapter 11 of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services by Tim Kashani et al (published by Sams). If you don't have a 64-bit machine or SharePoint 2010, you can make do with PerformancePoint 2007 (it's reasonably similar to 2010, except you don't start it in SharePoint - and you won't be able to deploy dashboards to SharePoint as 2010 dashboards, although you can still preview them). You will need SSAS (see SQL Server) as most of the PerformancePoint objects only work with SSAS.

 

 

 

PerformancePoint 2007 is a stand-alone product, you don't need SharePoint 2010. It's reasonably similar to 2010, except you don't start it in SharePoint - and you won't be able to deploy dashboards to SharePoint as 2010 dashboards, although you can still preview them. There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions, but I believe it's no longer available as a commercial and supported product.

 

Please be aware that it is not going to work with SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2, unless you apply some fixes. And it's probably not going to work with Windows 7 or Vista SP2 without some tweaking. If you want PerformancePoint 2007, please read the instructions at the end of this page.

 

If you are a developer working from home, try the free 32-bit or 64-bit trial version of PerformancePoint 2007 (www.microsoft.com).

 

 

You will need a 64-bit machine with enough processor cores, and preferably with 8GB to 16GB of RAM, especially if you run in a virtual machine. You will need SharePoint Server 2010 for PerformancePoint 2010, Excel Services, SSRS reports deployed in integrated mode, and PowerPivot for SharePoint. For the latter you will also need SQL Server 2008 R2. For the latter you also need to install on Windows 2008 R2. The others will work on a client OS such as Windows 7 or Vista SP2. You have to tweak the SharePoint installation to accomplish this. You can find instructions in Chapter 11 of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services by Tim Kashani et al (published by Sams).

 

 

 

You will need a 64-bit machine and Visio 2010 if you wish to create, edit, or view strategy maps in PerformancePoint 2010. It has to be 64-bit Visio 2010. You can also data mine from Visio, 32-bit only - you will need SSAS (see SQL Server) and the Data Mining Add-in (see Data Mining Add-in for Excel).

 

 

 

For PerformancePoint 2010 strategy maps, you require Visio 2010 64-bit. For the Excel Data Mining Add-in, you need Excel 2010 or 2007 32-bit. If anyone has figured out how to install Excel 2010 32-bit and Visio 2010 64-bit on the same machine, please let me know. OOTB (out-of-the-box) you can't do this!

 

 

Disclaimer: Do not try on a production machine, may need more steps on some machines