I recently presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works Free Training on the T’s about new Business Intelligence features in SharePoint 2013. If you attended I want to say thank you. It’s always a fun time presenting and the audience is always a lot of fun to interact with before presenting. If you were unable to join the session here is a link to the recording that you can watch for free. The Q&A can be found below.

Q: Do the improvements mean that we can do security without Kerberos in 2013?

A: Yes and no. The security improvements I showed in this webinar are specific to PerformancePoint and Excel services connection to SQL Server Analysis Services only. This does not affect SSRS typing to connect to any source. So there definitely could still be a need for Kerberos for other connection scenarios. Keep in mind these settings also don’t affect other security models for the rest of your SharePoint farm, just those two specific BI applications.

Q: In the Browser View Options can you only select certain worksheets to deploy to SharePoint so you can essentially hide some of the worksheets from users?

A: That is correct. If you choose to deploy worksheets they will be stored inside the workbook and uploaded, but they will not be visible in the browser to the user.

Q: So what is the best practice for security setup in SP: Using individual credentials and pass it down to data source via SP using Kerberos and delegation of security, or use that single account for all users (Unattended Service Account), or finally pass users credentials as connection property?

A: I’m going to be a consultant here for a moment and say “it depends”. Honestly, it really does. It depends on the data in the report. Human resources data for instance I would say you need to go Kerberos or connection property because access to that data is likely on a per user basis. For instance, I shouldn’t be able to see HR data for the western region if I’m the HR manager for the eastern region. If the data requires less restrictive access, say weather data we have collected then the unattended account is probably just fine since everyone would be connecting under the same credentials and not their own identity.

Q: What version of SQL Server is needed to use SharePoint 2013 features?

A: Power View would need to be SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 or later. The back end for SQL though, to get the PerformancePoint and Excel Services functionality would only need to be 2008R2 SP1 or later.

Q: Do you know if Microsoft plans to add support for multidimensional models for the Excel version of Power View?

A: I don’t have any good insider information on this topic but I think it would be a huge mistake if they didn’t. Look for this in future updates to Excel.

Q: How difficult is to import PerformancePoint 2007 objects into SharePoint 2013?

A: The migration method I showed in the webinar would only work for moving 2013 objects between sites. There is some information about upgrading 2007 objects in this blog post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/performancepoint/archive/2010/02/25/upgrading-performancepoint-server-2007-to-pps-2010.aspx

Q: How does do the new security settings you showed affect SSAS security?

A: This will not change your current SSAS security model. You still need to set up roles in your SSAS cubes to handle the mapping between users and the data they can see.

Q: Can Excel and PerformancePoint 2013 show data from SSAS 2005 cubes?

A: Yes.

Q: In the excel services report can you view your pie chart and pivot table in the same view?

A: Not in the gallery view, you would have to use the standard view (aka, not setting the browser view options to individual items).