|
In the early 1990's, we had the spreadsheet wars and Excel won that batlle.
The OLAP
market is going through the same process but the most likely outcome will be
the
Microsoft Analysis Services (AS) platform. In the mean time, the following are some of the OLAP engine differences you could be considering for
Analysis Services vs other OLAP products. There are many, but below are some. |
Factor
|
AS
|
Other
|
- Can you work with non-unique members in dimensions? If not, do you have to create
mapping tables and maintain these.
|
Yes |
No |
- How many dimensions can you have in a cube?
|
64 |
<20? |
- Can you add or delete dimensions in a cube easily?
|
Yes |
No |
- When changing the cube structure, consider the impact on the reporting environments,
i.e. do you have to update all queries/views with the relevant changes?
|
Yes/No |
Yes |
- Can you handle large volumes of data?
|
Yes |
No |
- Is there another non-Microsoft security model involved?
|
Yes/No |
Yes
|
- Can you combine current functions available in development tools in the equivalent
of MDX?
|
Yes |
No |
- Can you combine budgeting and forecasting into your solution?
|
Yes |
Yes |