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Oracle RDBMS 11g OLAP Option

Oracle OLAP is an option to Oracle Database (11g Enterprise Edition). The Oracle 11g OLAP option supports multidimensional analysis within the Oracle database and can be used to support a large array of analytical application solutions including planning, budgeting, forecasting, sales, and marketing. The OLAP option includes a multidimensional calculation engine, an interface for dimensional modelling and querying, and a SQL interface to the multidimensional data types. The OLAP option also supports access to relational tables for relational OLAP (ROLAP) models.

The multidimensional OLAP engine runs within the Oracle relational database process and data is stored in Oracle data files as just another data type. With OLAP an integrated part of the Oracle database, the OLAP option can take advantage of the administrative, security, and high availability features of the database. The OLAP option is also compatible with Real Application Clusters and Grid Computing.

Through the use of advanced analytic functions, Oracle OLAP can be used to model complex business scenarios and to help identify key business trends. Oracle OLAP provides a storage mechanism (OLAP cube materialized views), in Oracle Database 11g, which can dramatically improve the performance of complex analytic queries precalculating and accessing multi-dimensional data.

The benefits of using Oracle OLAP with your existing database can be:

Reduced data movement. You no longer have to replicate you existing data into standalone OLAP engines for offline analysis. With Oracle OLAP, you multi-dimensional data is stored within the same relational database
Lower IT Complexity. Use of the OLAP option negates the need for standalone OLAP engines and their associated hardware requiments. Storing the multi-dimensional data in the same database also means that only a single security model is required for users to access the OLAP and relational data. Data stored in the OLAP option can be retrieved using standard SQL tools.
Scalability. The use of the OLAP option with Oracle Real Application Clusters provides the basis for developing very large multidimensional databases supporting thousands of concurrent users.

The OLAP option supports the Oracle BI Discoverer Plus OLAP, Oracle BI Spreadsheet Add-in and Oracle BI Beans products as well as third-party BI applications used against the Oracle database.

The dimensional model used in Oracle OLAP can be used to present complex relational data in understandable business terms and allows applications to define complex multidimensional queries with ease. The OLAP option can also be used to provide performance advantages to dimensionally modelled applications. The OLAP option can significantly improve the query times for ad-hoc queries by intelligently managing database calculations such as data summarization, aggregation and ad-hoc calculations.

Analytic Workspaces

Data is stored as a multidimensional data type in the OLAP option using Analytic Workspaces (the equivalent of old Express Server databases). An analytic workspace typically contains data organized by subject matter using a dimensional model. For example, one analytic workspace might contain sales data with a separate analytic workspaces for financial data. Most analytic workspaces contain several stored measures plus a number of dynamic calculations. The measures tend to be organized by dimensions that will often be defined and organised through the use of hierarchies and attributes. Data is typically stored in analytic workspaces at both the detailed and summary levels through the use of pre-aggregation of source data.

The administrative tool used with the OLAP option to manage your analytic workspaces is called Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM). AWM can be used to create the multidimensional model, manage on-going data loading tasks and to define calculations. AWM is a completely GUI environment and is designed to be used by a wide variety of users who may need to managed the data sets. Oracle BI Warehouse Builder is an industrial strength ETL system that can be used to aid the process of creating and managing analytic workspaces.

How Rockport Can Help You:

New Oracle 11g OLAP implementations
Proof of concept designs
Support & Upgrade assistance for customers moving from Express Server to Oracle OLAP
Upgrade advice & assistance

Speak to us today to find out how we can help you with the you Oracle OLAP requirements.

Oracle OLAP - Information

Oracle OLAP has been available since version Oracle 9i.

Current Release

Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.6.0) Enterprise Edition

Oracle Links

Oracle OLAP Option - A History

The Oracle database OLAP option was introduced in Oracle version 9i and was based on the Oracle Express OLAP Server technology. Click here to see how Rockport viewed the announcement of the OLAP option back in 2000.

At Oracle OpenWorld 2000, it was announced that the Oracle relational database and the Express Server OLAP engine would converge in the 9i release of the Oracle database. The OLAP engine would be available as an option to the database.

The aim of the integration of Express Server and Oracle database was that the capabilities of the Oracle database would be enhanced such that a single engine could manage all Business Intelligence and Warehousing requirements. Also incorporated within the Oracle database at this time were innovative ETL (Extraction, Transformation and Load) capabilities to create and maintain the database as well as an integrated Data Mining engine. The specialised OLAP option would provide sophisticated analytical capabilities previously unavailable to Oracle Database users.

The OLAP option would provide the ability to run complex, multi-dimensional queries and calculations as well as to create predictive analytical functions against the relationally stored data. By containing a multi-dimensional cache, the OLAP option would provide rapid response times to queries and would be able to handle very large numbers of concurrent users and support multi-terabyte dimensional models.

Data stored through the OLAP Option would be accessible by Oracle OLAP SQL Functions - providing powerful data analysis capabilities directly from Oracle's SQL language. The OLAP-like functions include standard multi-dimensional queries such as time-series analysis e.g. lag and lead; rankings, categorization and statistical functions such as correlation as linear regressions.