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Cognos Analytics Upgrade Advisor

See what Cognos 12.1.3 gets you, and what it'll take to get there.

Tell us about your Cognos environment and one of our upgrade consultants will send you a written report. It covers the new features you'd gain by upgrading, anything in your setup that needs work before you move, and a rough effort range.

Free, no obligation Takes a few minutes Every report reviewed by a consultant

Standard support ended April 30, 2026 for Cognos Analytics 11.2, and September 30, 2026 for 12.0. (IBM's extended support is available through 2030, but it costs extra and the coverage is narrower.) The bigger cost of staying put is everything IBM has shipped since, including the new AI agents. On-premises, those need 12.1.2 or later plus IBM's separately licensed AI Premium Edition.

About you

We'll send the report to this address, so please use your work email. The report is written about your company specifically.

Who makes the call

The report opens with a short summary written for whoever approves the upgrade, so you can forward it as is. If that's you, put your own name.

Optional: add a read-only inventory of your content store

Your answers above are estimates. For a report built on real counts, run our read-only PowerShell script against your Cognos server and paste what it produces. It only reads, and it never sends anything anywhere: you look over the output, then paste it here yourself. Report titles are left out by default, and a -CountsOnly option leaves out every name. Download the script and see exactly what it collects

Leave this blank if you'd rather skip it. You'll still get a full report.

The report is free and there's no obligation. A consultant reads every one before it goes out, so expect yours within one business day.

Received

Thanks. We're writing your report now.

One of our upgrade consultants will review it and email it to you, usually within one business day. If something in your answers needs clarifying, we'll get in touch before we send it.

That's all we need from you. We won't add you to a newsletter, and nobody will call unless you ask.

Optional inventory script

Get the inventory script

Run this read-only PowerShell script against your Cognos server, then paste what it produces into the form, and your report is written from real counts. It can also turn up things a questionnaire won't, like legacy content no one remembers building.

Download the script

One zip: the script, its full notes, and an example of what it produces.

What it collects, and what it leaves out

It collects

  • Counts of every object type in your content store
  • Names of packages, data modules, and custom visualizations
  • Names of legacy Query Studio, Analysis Studio, and PowerPlay content
  • How many schedules exist, how many are active, and how often they run
  • Data source types, such as Db2 or SQL Server
  • How many authentication namespaces you have

It leaves out

  • Every object name, if you run it with -CountsOnly
  • Report titles, unless you add a switch to include them
  • Report content, data, and query results
  • Connection strings, server names, and credentials
  • User names, groups, and anything else about people
  • Your personal folders, unless you ask for them

Running it

You'll need Windows PowerShell 5.1 or later on a machine that can reach your Cognos server. The script asks for the server address, then for an API key or your sign-in. 

# Unzip it, then work from the folder it creates
Expand-Archive .\cognos-inventory.zip -DestinationPath .
cd .\cognos-inventory

# Read what it does before you run it
Get-Help .\Get-CognosInventory.ps1 -Full

# Once you've read it, tell Windows you trust this file (see below)
Unblock-File .\Get-CognosInventory.ps1

# Run it
.\Get-CognosInventory.ps1

# Same counts, but no object names at all
.\Get-CognosInventory.ps1 -CountsOnly

# If your server uses an internal certificate
.\Get-CognosInventory.ps1 -SkipCertificateCheck

An account with read access to the content store is enough. If the script can't reach something, it makes a note and keeps going, and the gap shows up in your report under "What we couldn't check."

If Windows says the file "is not digitally signed"

Windows marks any script downloaded from the internet, and on most machines it won't run a marked script that isn't signed. This one isn't signed yet. After you've read it, Unblock-File removes the mark from that one file and nothing else. If your organization requires every script to be signed, you can run it once without changing any settings: 

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Get-CognosInventory.ps1

That applies only to the PowerShell window it starts. If group policy blocks both, your security team will want to look at the script first, and they can run it themselves.

It only reads, and nothing leaves your network

Every call it makes is an HTTP GET, except the one that starts your session, which Cognos requires to be a PUT. The script has no upload step: it prints the result and saves cognos-inventory.json next to itself. Read that file, and paste it into the form only if you're comfortable with what's in it. To check the script yourself before running it: 

# Should print exactly one line: the session call
Select-String -Path .\Get-CognosInventory.ps1 -Pattern 'Method\s+(Post|Put|Patch|Delete)'

# Should print nothing at all
Select-String -Path .\Get-CognosInventory.ps1 -Pattern 'Invoke-Expression|IEX|DownloadString|FromBase64String'