Why Enterprises Use Pentaho Business Analytics EE

Pentaho’s Platform Extensions are widely recognized for their value in embedded analytics, providing a robust framework for integrating Pentaho into larger solutions. However, their impact extends far beyond embedding.  These powerful extensions help enterprises simplify reporting, enforce access control, and manage multi-tenant environments with greater efficiency.

What Are Platform Extensions?

Pentaho’s Data Integration Enterprise Edition Platform Extensions provide advanced security, multi-tenancy, and data access control capabilities, helping enterprises reduce administrative overhead while strengthening governance. Whether you’re simplifying role-based reporting or streamlining departmental data access, these extensions offer a clear path forward for Enterprise Edition customers. Together, these six core components automate access, enforce data security, and simplify user management:

1. Automated Access Control (EXT-ContentAccess) – Enforces role-based access control across complex folder hierarchies, ensuring users only see relevant content.
2. Dynamic Data Connectivity (EXT-DynamicDataSources) – Dynamically directs users to the appropriate database based on their context at runtime, ensuring secure, role-aware data access.
3. Row-Level Security (EXT-DynamicDataFiltering) – Applies dynamic SQL logic at runtime, restricting data access based on session variables and predefined rules to ensure users see only relevant data without duplicating reports or manually editing SQL.
4. Smart Folder Management (EXT-HomeFolders) – Automatically creates home directories for applicable user roles, reducing manual setup and preventing unnecessary folders for read-only users.
5. Session-Based Security (EXT-SessionStartup) – Initializes the user session with essential security parameters, ensuring seamless integration with the other extensions and supporting single sign-on (SSO).
6. Flexible Authentication (EXT-SSO) – Provides enterprise-grade single sign-on (SSO) alongside standard authentication solutions (LDAP, SAML, CAS) while also accommodating custom authentication

 How Different Customers Leverage Platform Extensions

 For Embedded Analytics & Software Vendors

Organizations embedding rely on these enterprise extensions to:

• Provide a seamless user experience inside their software
• Automate role-based access and multi-tenant security
• Customize the look and feel to match the host application
• Reduce development effort by handling security and access dynamically

For Enterprises & Internal IT Teams

Enterprise customers can benefit from these extensions by:

• Integrating SSO to unify authentication across platforms
• Ensuring secure multi-tenant access without duplicating reports
• Automating role-based access and content filtering
• Dynamically enforcing security without manual SQL logic

Real-World Use Cases: How Platform Extensions Simplify Security and Access

• Departmental Data Access: Adjusts queries dynamically to reflect user roles and departments,  only authorized users see relevant data – without manual query modifications.
• Dynamic Role-Based Reporting: Enforces real-time access control and data filtering based on user attributes without duplicating reports or embedding static SQL logic.
• Simplified Content Access: Streamlines role-based folder and content management, reducing administrative workload while maintaining strict security.

Tying It All Together

Pentaho’s flexible architecture allows these extensions to seamlessly integrate into both embedded applications and enterprise environments. Whether you need to embed dashboards, dynamically filter data, or automate multi-tenant security, these extensions provide a scalable, secure solution.

For software vendors, this means embedding analytics that inherits host application security. For enterprises, it means enforcing access control without added complexity. The result? A fully integrated experience that preserves security and governance without disrupting the user workflow.

Licensing and Support

These extensions are supported by Pentaho Customer Success, ensuring seamless implementation and integration to meet your organization’s needs. To maximize value, we recommend a workshop to assess the best integration strategy for your organization.

If you want to explore how these extensions can simplify your reporting strategy or implement multi-tenant security, contact us at Pentaho Services to learn more.