One aspect of Yukon that has been interesting to watch is the evolution of the development and management tools. As interim builds and betas have progressed, the vision has become more fully materialized. In Beta 2, it’s possible to see all the pieces together, and it looks good.
For the BI components, there are two environments—SQL Management Studio for managing the production environment, and BI Development Studio for supporting the development environment. In a single development solution, you can include DTS projects, Analysis Services projects, and Reporting Services projects. The solution actually starts to look like a solution. In SQL Management Studio, the Report Server is now just another server along with the SQL Server and the Analysis Server. All the management options for Reporting Services that used to require Report Manager (or custom code) are now right there next to the management options for SQL Server and Analysis Server. There’s even a DTS Server that helps you monitor (and stop!) running jobs, as well as manage the storage of packages.
The bottom line is that there are now two separate and distinct environments for development and management, but all the BI components are available in a nicely parallel manner in each.
Lest I sound like I’m delivering a eulogy, there are still some quirks, rough edges, and confusing places. Tomorrow I’ll mention a few places I have found odd.