Can we upgrade Cognos 8 to Cognos 11 directly ?

[cognoslearner1]

Hi All,

I have a query. Can we upgrade Cognos 8 to Cognos 11 directly ? or do we need to upgrade it to 10 and later to 11 ?

Thanks
Cognoslearner1

[CognosPaul]

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work. The underlying XML and content store is essentially identical.

That being said there are a number of major changes in C11. Any upgrade project can be difficult, but there are a few major factors here.

Portal tabs have only now been added back in, with minimal support. If your organization is heavily reliant on tabs, this may be a major blocker. The extensions require a different mindset and will involve retraining your users.

OLAP sources are now DQM only which is a different querying engine introduced in Cognos 10. If you have OLAP reports you may have some significant issues upgrading them. Reports that are built completely to the MDX standard, without using any relational development standards, may upgrade seamlessly.

Adhoc tools, like Query Studio and Analysis Studio are officially on the way out. Dashboarding and interactive mode are the new kings. Again, retraining users will be necessary.

There are a number of new features in Cognos 11 that are well worth the effort, but upgrading a legacy system will not be as simple as installing over. I finished a 10 month project upgrading from C10.2 to C11, upgrading, fixing, and sometimes completely rewriting over four thousand reports.