At the BI Conference in Seattle, Microsoft announced the future roadmap for next BI-oriented SQL Server release, nee Kilimanjaro, that will focus on three major teams:

• Self Service Analytics

• Self Service Reporting

• Sharing, Collaboration & Management

The Self Service Analytics will encompass projects Madison (a share-nothing MPP scale-out version of SQL Server, powered by DATAllegro technology) and Gemini, which I mentioned before.

The Self Service Reporting is where Reporting Services.NEXT will come in, of course. Microsoft announced the acquisition of 90 Degree Software. In case you are not familiar with this company, 90 Degree Software has built a very comprehensive report designer that is very similar to Report Builder 2.0. What I expect from this acquisition is more end-user enhancement in Report Builder 2.0 and improved Analysis Services integration. Expect also a shared report library that lets the end user save and share report elements and templates with other users.

The SoftArtisans acquisition will finally materialize in Kilimindjaro to empower business users to author reports inside Microsoft Office. Expect the preview bits of Kilimanjaro in 1H2009 with release in 1H2010. Watch the keynote presentation online.