OLAP technologies should provide for both stand-alone
and server solutions. Having
the information centralised is probably preferencial so that there is "ONE VERSION
OF THE TRUTH" and then you do not have little data islands that are independent
and that may have to be consolidated at some point.
OLAP SERVER
An OLAP server is a high-capacity, multi-user data manipulation engine specifically
designed to support and operate on multi-dimensional data structures. A multi- dimensional
structure is arranged so that every data item is located and accessed based on the
intersection of the dimension members which define that item. The design of the
server and the structure of the data are optimized for rapid ad-hoc information
retrieval in any orientation, as well as for fast, flexible calculation and transformation
of raw data based on formulaic relationships. The OLAP Server may either physically
stage the processed multi-dimensional information to deliver consistent and rapid
response times to end users, or it may populate its data structures in real-time
from relational or other databases, or offer a choice of both. Given the current
state of technology and the end user requirement for consistent and rapid response
times, staging the multi-dimensional data in the OLAP Server is often the preferred
method. [Source © 1997 OLAP Council, all rights reserved]
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