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The arrival of SQL-Server 7.0 provides an awesome opportunity
to bring decision support to a vast new market that previously couldn't afford
OLAP solutions.
Richard Creeth, Creeth, Richman & Assoc.
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Microsoft has incorporated OLAP services into its SQL/Server relational database
product. OLAP is not a new technology, but up to now it was a technology priced
out of the hands of most business. OLAP databases replace traditional relational
databases' column-and-row indexing schemes with multidimensional arrays in which
each data field gets its own dimension. This feature lets OLAP databases perform
complex ad hoc queries in a fraction of the time that it takes traditional relational
databases to do so. Companies like Arbor Software, Oracle and IBM have been selling
pricey OLAP solutions primarily to Fortune 1000 companies with significant decision-support
needs and budgets to match. Now that Microsoft has made OLAP affordable "business
users who previously couldn't even spell OLAP are going to start clamoring for
OLAP datamarts of their own", says Michael Schiff, principal at Current Analysis
Inc., a solutions integrator in Sterling, VA. We discuss how to best take advantage
of this opportunity.
Sidebars:
Microsoft's three-pronged strategy for taking business away from Oracle
and IBM's OLAP products.
Rocky Mountain High OLAP-- When a group of Colorado community colleges
wanted an affordable OLAP, it turned to Microsoft and Microsoft turned to
integrator Len Silverston of Quest Data Solutions.
Components of the Microsoft OLAP solution
Product & Vendor Listing
Glossary of Datawarehousing and OLAP terminology
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