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The Microsoft BI Semantic Model or BISM is a new term introduced with the release of SQL Server 2012. It refers to the way Analysis Services and PowerPivot can be used as a semantic layer, on top of other data, for reporting purposes. Rather than being a product on its own, it is a conceptual term to describe the different options you have within Analysis Services 2012.

VertiPaq is a high compression, in-memory data base engine used to read and manipulate data. Because everything is done entirely in-memory (all based on RAM storage), it performs much faster than the traditional disk based storage solutions. This makes it possible to quickly navigate through or filter data based on several millions, up to billions of rows. Resulting from an acquisition, it is Microsoft answer to the market trend of in-memory OLAP.

VertiPaq is a high compression, in-memory data base engine used to read and manipulate data.Because everything is done entirely in-memory (all based on RAM storage), it performs much faster than the traditional disk based storage solutions. This makes it possible to quickly navigate through or filter data based on several millions, up to billions of rows.Resulting from an acquisition, it is Microsoft answer to the market trend of in-memory OLAP.

MDX or "MultiDimensional Expressions" is not only a specialized query language for querying and manipulating data stored in Analysis Services OLAP cubes. It is also a calculation language with syntax similar to Excel formulas. It has been embraced by a wide majority of OLAP vendors and has become the standard for interrogating OLAP systems.MDX queries and expressions in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) can be used to :

DAX or "Data Analysis Expressions" is a new language that was introduced with Microsoft PowerPivot. It is a formula language which allows users to define custom calculations in PowerPivot tables and Excel Pivot Tables. It includes some of the known Excel formulas and adds functions that are designed for PowerPivot to work with relations between data and perform dynamic aggregations.

The SQL Server Profiler is a graphical user interface for monitoring an instance of the database engine or Analysis Services. Data about each event can be captured and saved to a file or table so they can be analyzed later. It can be used to monitor performance of your database and identify slow performing queries or stored procedures.

The Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine Tuning Advisor helps you to optimize database configuration by identifying an optimal set of indexes, indexed views and partitions without requiring an expert understanding of the database structure. It advises you by analyzing a certain workload by using trace files, trace tables or T-SQL scripts as input.The Database Engine Tuning Advisor will then give you certain recommendations to add, remove or modify certain settings in your Microsoft SQL Server database.

The Reporting Services Configuration Manager is used to configure your Reporting Services installation if it is set to ‘Native Mode'.This configuration is necessary to get your reporting environment up-and-running. The Configuration Manager is used to configure the Report Server service account, create and configure the report server database, create and configure the Report Manager and Report Server URL's, configure server mail settings, etc.

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) was first released with SQL Server 2005 and is used for managing, administering and configuring the different components of SQL Server. It will mainly be used for database development, but the administration of your Integration Services and Analysis Services projects can also be done through Management Studio.It combines a broad group of graphical tools with a number of rich script editors to provide access to SQL Server to developers and database administrators.

IBM Cognos Insight exist in 2 versions. The desktop standalone version or the version which can be accessed through the IBM Cognos TM1 applications portal. Both versions offer exactly the same functionality. They allow to import tabular data from eg. Excel sheets directly into IBM Cognos Insight by drag and drop. The data immediately shows up in a workspace area where users can analyze and visualize their data.