Online analytical processing, or OLAP, is an approach to answer multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries swiftly in computing. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational databases, report writing and data mining. Typical applications of OLAP include business reporting for sales, marketing, management reporting, business process management (BPM), budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and similar areas, with new applications emerging, such as agriculture.
Essbase is a multidimensional database management system (MDBMS) that provides a platform upon which to build analytic applications. Essbase began as a product from Arbor Software, which merged with Hyperion Software in 1998. Oracle Corporation acquired Hyperion Solutions Corporation in 2007, as of 2009 Oracle markets Essbase as "Oracle Essbase", both on-premises and in Oracle's Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Until late 2005 IBM also marketed an OEM version of Essbase as DB2 OLAP Server.
A pivot table is a table of grouped values that aggregates the individual items of a more extensive table within one or more discrete categories. This summary might include sums, averages, or other statistics, which the pivot table groups together using a chosen aggregation function applied to the grouped values.
Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) is a query language for online analytical processing (OLAP) using a database management system. Much like SQL, it is a query language for OLAP cubes. It is also a calculation language, with syntax similar to spreadsheet formulas.
Mondrian is an open source OLAP server, written in Java. It supports the MDX (multidimensional expressions) query language and the XML for Analysis and olap4j interface specifications. It reads from SQL and other data sources and aggregates data in a memory cache.
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is an online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining tool in Microsoft SQL Server. SSAS is used as a tool by organizations to analyze and make sense of information possibly spread out across multiple databases, or in disparate tables or files. Microsoft has included a number of services in SQL Server related to business intelligence and data warehousing. These services include Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services. Analysis Services includes a group of OLAP and data mining capabilities and comes in two flavors multidimensional and tabular, where the difference between the two is how the data is presented. In a tabular model, the information is arranged in two-dimensional tables which can thus be more readable for a human. A multidimensional model can contain information with many degrees of freedom, and must be unfolded to increase readability by a human.
XML for Analysis (XMLA) is an industry standard for data access in analytical systems, such as online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining. XMLA is based on other industry standards such as XML, SOAP and HTTP. XMLA is maintained by XMLA Council with Microsoft, Hyperion and SAS Institute being the XMLA Council founder members.
Data Mining Extensions (DMX) is a query language for data mining models supported by Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services product.
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a server-based report generating software system from Microsoft. It is part of a suite of Microsoft SQL Server services, including SSAS and SSIS.
Palo is a memory resident multidimensional database server and typically used as a business intelligence tool for controlling and budgeting purposes with spreadsheet software acting as the user interface. Beyond the multidimensional data concept, Palo enables multiple users to share one centralised data storage.
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which may run either on the same computer or on another computer across a network. Microsoft markets at least a dozen different editions of Microsoft SQL Server, aimed at different audiences and for workloads ranging from small single-machine applications to large Internet-facing applications with many concurrent users.
Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) is the former IDE from Microsoft, and was used to develop data analysis and business intelligence solutions utilizing Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Reporting Services and Integration Services. It is based on the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment, but customized with the SQL Server services-specific extensions and project types, including tools, controls and projects for reports, ETL dataflows, OLAP cubes and data mining structure.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of online analytical processing (OLAP) servers. Please see the individual products articles for further information.
CubePort is a commercial software application that converts from Oracle Essbase to the analogous Microsoft product Microsoft Analysis Services, which is built into Microsoft SQL Server. This application achieves this through various analogy mapping techniques, and is a standard client-server application that runs on a Windows computer but may connect to non-Windows servers. CubePort converts the various OLAP structures and syntaxes in the source through an extraction process, interprets, and recreates in the target. The objective is to simulate exactly the behavior of the original source system to the target system.
XLCubed is a business intelligence software and consulting services company. Established in 2001, XLCubed develops business intelligence software and provides business intelligence and performance management consulting services. The company is privately held and based out of the United Kingdom in the Thames Valley IT corridor.
Power Pivot, formerly known as PowerPivot, is a feature of Microsoft Excel, a computer software spreadsheet. It is available as an add-in in Excel 2010, 2013 in separate downloads, and as an add-in included with the Excel 2016 program. Power Pivot extends a local instance of Microsoft Analysis Services tabular that is embedded directly into an Excel Workbook. This allows a user to build a ROLAP model in Power Pivot, and use pivot tables to explore the model once it is built. This allows Excel to act as a self-service business intelligence (BI) platform, implementing professional expression languages to query the model and calculate advanced measures.
BIDS Helper is a Visual Studio open source extension with multiple features that extend and enhance business intelligence development functionality in all editions of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012. BIDS Helper improves the development environment for integration, analysis and reporting services. BIDS Helper is hosted on GitHub.
icCube is a company founded in Switzerland that provides business intelligence (BI) software of the same name. The software can be fully embedded, can be hosted in a managed environment or installed in a customer's machine on premises.
Power BI is an interactive data visualization software product developed by Microsoft with a primary focus on business intelligence. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform. Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. Data may be input by reading directly from a database, webpage, or structured files such as spreadsheets, CSV, XML, and JSON.
Power Query is an ETL tool created by Microsoft for data extraction, loading and transformation, and is used to retrieve data from sources, process it, and load them into one or more target systems. Power Query is available in several variations within the Microsoft Power Platform, and is used for business intelligence on fully or partially self-service platforms. It is found in software such as Excel, Power BI, Analysis Services, Dataverse, Power Apps, Azure Data Factory, SSIS, Dynamics 365, and in cloud services such as Microsoft Dataflows, including Power BI Dataflow used with the online Power BI Service or the somehwat more generic version of Microsoft Dataflow used with Power Automate.
