What is the need of a reporting server?
What do I miss out by not using a reporting server and instead using a reporting library?
Reporting libraries like Jasper can easily generate a report and can be embedded anywhere, be that Servlet or a desktop application. Why then would one need a reporting server?
The most useful feature of a reporting server would be the ability to generate scheduled reports, the second most useful is the ability to view reports on the web, aside from that, you don't miss too much if you don't use it.
A reporting server usually generates reports offline or cached on demand. This means that report you need are more likely to be pregenerated and accessible immediately rather than waiting for the report to generate. It can also be used to generate reports which are emailed periodically.
