Architecture
DataWarehouse Explorer can be used in different scenarios within your organization. These scenarios are explained below and aid you in understanding which scenario is right for your organization.
Of course you can use multiple scenarios within your organization, for example you can have the "Rich clients with DWE Portal" scenario on your intranet and use the "Thin client with DWE Portal" for users connecting through the Internet.
In this scenario a client can connect to DataWarehouse Explorer Portal with its browser of choice and use the portal as a starting point to view, export and manage reports which are stored on the DataWarehouse Explorer Portal Server. This server can be either in the local network or located somewhere on the Internet.
Reports can be viewed on the server, just as with the thin client scenario. When a user wants to edit a report to make modifications or just perform further analysis, the DataWarehouse Explorer must be started. Clients that are equipped with the .NET Framework can utlilize the smart client technology built into the DWE Portal, which will automatically check if latest version of the DWE is installed locally and perform an install/upgrade if this is not the case. No administrator permissions are required at any time during this process.
Once the DWE is present on the user's computer, the DWE can open and save reports stored both on a DWE Portal server as well as to the local/network file system. Saving reports on the portal server has the advantage of making these reports available to users throughout the organization, without requiring them to install the DWE to view the report content.
As the DWE is run on the user's computer, any connections made to analysis servers are performed from the client machine directly to the analysis server.
Reports that have been created with DataWarehouse Explorer can be stored on the DataWarehouse Explorer Portal server. These reports and all other files that are stored in DWE Portal are available to authorized users in the local network or over the Internet. The only software required to view or export a report is a browser.
Access to reports is controlled by the permissions defined within the DWE Portal on folders and reports. Permissions within the DWE Portal are always defined on Active Directory users and groups.
DataWarehouse Explorer reports do not store any results. Every time a report is opened, the information is retrieved from the analysis server(s) the report was based upon. As the report is executed on the server, only the server needs access to the analysis servers that contain the data. This is ideal in situations where you want to provide authorized users on the Internet with view access to the reports, but want to keep your analysis servers secure in your local intranet.
DataWarehouse Explorer can also be installed as a standalone application. The standalone version has the exact same features as the version distributed by the Portal. In this scenario, reports will typically be saved on the local file system or on a network share. Report access rights are then controlled by the permission defined on the folders themselves.
When working with reports, the DWE connects directly from the user's computer to the analysis server(s) used within the report. Everyone that opens these reports must also have access to these analysis servers.
