SQL Server Analysis Services

Analysis Services is the OLAP component of the SQL Server suite. With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services it is possible to quickly and easily slice and dice the information in your data warehouse. Storing the data of your warehouse in an OLAP architecture provides a faster and more intuitive way of accessing that data. In Analysis Services -as in any OLAP architecture- the cube is at the centre.

The cube holds the:

  • Measures in one or more measure groups
  • Dimensions providing the necessary information on the measures
  • Additional calculated members and measures
  • Actions, translations, perspectives, ...
  • And many more

Before you can use these cubes, they first have to be modelled. The Modelling of such a cube is done in Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS). First, a model is created with the tables or views from the data warehouse. Next, the dimensions are modelled with the necessary attributes and hierarchies to finally create the cube with the necessary measures and set up the required security.

With the years of experience element61 has in creating cubes, element61 can provide additional services when setting up an OLAP environment. Next to implementing the cubes according to industry standards, element61 can also introduce dynamic security across your complete BI environment. And make sure you can keep the overview of measures when introducing the calculations of YTD, MTD, Previous Year, PYTD, Previous Month, etc.

Since SQL Server 2012, the Microsoft Data Platform has an alternative to Analysis Services Multidimensional: the Tabular model. In contrast with the Multidimensional model, a Tabular model is simply modelled as different tables strung together by different relationships. This makes the modelling experience more simplified and especially quicker. The Tabular model uses the Vertipaq technology introduced in Power Pivot to store the data in memory using a columnar structure. Because of the column-based storage, large compression ratios are achieved. This results in the possibility to store large amounts of data in RAM, but also in very fast performance.

Contact us for more information on SQL Server Analysis Services.