5 Multidimensional Databases

The multidimensional database is another way to provide data for OLAP operations. Taking the place of tables in relational databases, multi­dimensional databases organize data into cubes that contain measures and dimensions. This technology is often referred as MOLAP. The primary benefit of using MOLAP is enhanced performance because of pre-aggregation.

The closest to an industry standard query language is MDX via XMLA. Style Studio uses these technologies to access meta-data from MOLAP databases and present it uniformly. Because the meta-data from a MOLAP database contains all of the information needed for the Style Studio engine, models for multidimensional databases are automatically created.

Recommendation: Within a given level of a dimension, do not create multiple entries with the same name. This creates an ambiguity for Viewsheet selections.

Multidimensional databases are most commonly provided by a part of a relational database. Both the Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services and Oracle OLAP server are OLAP add-ons. ESSbase is a specialized multidimensional database that is also marketed as an IBM OLAP server as an add-on to the DB2 database server. Some independent OLAP databases exist, such as Mondrian.

See Also

Appendix Appendix B:, OLAP Server Setup, for details about specific databases.

<< 4.7.5 Design Considerations © 1996-2013 InetSoft Technology Corporation (v11.4) 5.1 Configuring a Multidimensional Database Data Source >>