For Business Process & Applications Professionals

BI Belt Tightening In A Tough Economic Climate

Practical Advice Applicable To Any Economic Condition

by Boris Evelson, February 20, 2009

As an economic downturn becomes a sobering reality, enterprises look for various ways to increase revenues and reduce costs. While overall IT budgets become targets for cost cutting, business intelligence (BI) applications and infrastructure need not . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

OLAP: In Fashion Or Old-Fashioned?

by Boris Evelson, James G. Kobielus, November 7, 2008

Online analytical processing (OLAP) is a core component of a complex business intelligence (BI) architectural stack. Even as vendors begin to explore alternative technologies for "slicing" and "dicing" large data sets, OLAP engines, servers, and models . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Vendor Snapshot: Illuminate Solutions Breaks Through Traditional BI Barriers

by James G. Kobielus, August 8, 2008

Illuminate Solutions is a young Spain-based analytic database vendor that offers a compelling new approach optimized for complex, dynamic, ad hoc queries. Illuminate's correlation database uses what it calls "value-based storage" to greatly reduce the . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms, Q3 2008

by Boris Evelson, July 31, 2008

In Forrester's 151-criteria evaluation of enterprise business intelligence (BI) platform vendors, we found that IBM Cognos and SAP Business Objects maintain their leadership positions, while Oracle and SAS Institute move into leadership positions in enterprise . . .

OLAP Optimization — Myth or Math?

by Keith Gile, Philip Russom, March 30, 2004

Optimizing OLAP cubes is not just an exercise in data modeling, although that is the recommended first place to look. With a wide variety of applications built on top of OLAP constructs, the effectiveness of these applications may hinge on how well the . . .

Debunking The Death Of OLAP

Exploiting Its Pervasiveness As A Component Of Business Intelligence

by Keith Gile, March 16, 2004

Online analytic processing (OLAP) has evolved into a vital and irreplaceable component of business-intelligence (BI) applications. The reason is simple: OLAP lends business perspective to data. As a component of BI rather than the end result, OLAP's location . . .

Survey Results Show Developers Prefer Proprietary OLAP Engines

by Keith Gile, September 22, 2003

It is sensible for IT to consider utilizing the OLAP functionality that is bundled with the RDBMS platform, either as a persistent OLAP construct (Oracle and Microsoft) or as a logical representation (IBM).

The Oracle OLAP Benchmark New World Record: Benchmarketing or Useful Comparison?

by Keith Gile, May 19, 2003

It's an interesting public relations move by Oracle to announce a new world record for an OLAP benchmark, but it is a questionable comparison against products that are no longer available, using a benchmark that is severely outdated.

Don't Throw Out Those OLAP Engines Just Yet

by Keith Gile, April 24, 2003

The shift toward using the OLAP functionality within the RDBMS is a future direction, not a current mandate. The database platform vendors are lacking a viable mechanism to leverage OLAP features by anyone other than technical users.

Cognos PowerCubes vs. MicroStrategy Intelligent Cubes in the Operational Data Store

by Keith Gile, December 2, 2002

There are several significant differences between the MicroStrategy's relational online analytical processing (ROLAP) approach and Cognos' multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP) approach to the operational data store.

DB2 v 8.1 Multi-Dimensional Clustering Has Nothing to Do With Cubes

by Keith Gile, August 27, 2002

Train DBAs well on multi-dimensional clustering and to what the implications will be to all operational and decision support applications before implementing MDC on a production basis.

SAS Joins Leadership of XML for Analysis — Don't Expect the Standard Anytime Soon

by Keith Gile, May 30, 2002

The inclusion of SAS on the leadership team distributes the intellectual requirement beyond just OLAP and more significantly, beyond Microsoft and Hyperion. The ultimate success will be dependent on how well SAS works with the other data mining vendors.

Gentia End-Game: Assets Acquired by OpenRatings

by Lou Agosta, January 17, 2002

This acquisition buys Gentia customers some time to figure out what they want to do about either rehabilitating their current Gentia-based balanced scorecard, OLAP or enterprise performance management applications or seeking alternatives elsewhere.

Data Cubes Lend Perspective

by Keith Gile, December 19, 2001

If a company has a relational database and operational applications for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and supply-chain management, who needs a cube anyway? Everyone does.

Measuring the Total Economic Impact of OLAP

by Keith Gile, December 14, 2001

With the evolution of OLAP as a strategic investment, the full financial impact of the investment must be measured to fully understand any potential ROI to the entire organization.

Oracle Express Confronts the Innovator s Dilemma

by Keith Gile, Lou Agosta, October 22, 2001

The Oracle Express Server (6.3.2) MDDB is a product in transition. Though the Express code base and MDDB will live in the Oracle9i online analytical processing option as an analytic workspace, the sun is setting on Express Server as a separate product.

Slicing and Dicing the OLAP Survey Results

by Keith Gile, September 28, 2001

Companies should take press releases with a huge grain of salt, particularly when the data can be viewed from several different perspectives - which, after all, is the essence of online analytical processing (OLAP).

Managing the Risk of an OLAP Infrastructure

by Keith Gile, September 26, 2001

Significant technology changes in online analytical processing (OLAP) are placing increasing demands on the IT organization. Budgeting for OLAP requires adjusting estimates for the risk associated with this uncertainty and change.

Measuring OLAP Flexibility A Must as Well as an Option

by Keith Gile, September 19, 2001

The less flexible an OLAP solution is yielding fewer options the less value that solution has to the enterprise. IT organizations must assign a value to flexibility when looking to establish a business case for a specific OLAP technology approach.

Effectively Managing Data Cubes

by Keith Gile, Lou Agosta, September 13, 2001

The corporate IT function must be prepared to support the end user in managing the data cube and its server by means of a process suitable for a data mart.

New Role Emerging Within IT: Data Cube Administrator (DCA)

by Keith Gile, August 6, 2001

As OLAP functionality begins to spread throughout the enterprise as a commodity, IT s involvement with the general support and administration continues to expand. Get ready to staff the data cube administrator (DCA) position within IT.

What to Do With Those Data Cubes

by Lou Agosta, July 19, 2001

Manage a data cube according to a process for a dependent data mart. For example, end users perform their own application development and level-one help desk support, and IT provides administrative support and advice about performance and tuning.

Online Analytical Processing Vendor Drama or Bad Soap Opera

by Keith Gile, June 28, 2001

Giga believes that Cognos will indeed support connectivity by its flagship PowerPlay product to Hyperion Essbase with or without a formal partnership since there are many Hyperion cubes just waiting to be used by Cognos PowerPlay.

Implementing a Second Online Analytical Processing Tool Will Be Costly

by Keith Gile, June 18, 2001

Maintaining a second dedicated OLAP tool is an expensive process and more often than not unnecessary. Before purchasing another component OLAP tool, companies should strongly consider implementing analytic applications.

Surprising Leader in Delivering Commodity OLAP Is Not a Database Vendor

by Keith Gile, June 4, 2001

The push toward commodity OLAP continues, but the impetus isn t coming solely from the ranks of a few of the major relational database vendors (Oracle, IBM or Microsoft), rather the force behind the movement is the analytic application.