Database Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Browsing Analysis
Services OLAP Cubes
with Excel
In This Chapter
Understanding Analysis Services OLAP cubes
●
Connecting to an OLAP data source
●
Creating offline cubes
●
Using cube functions
●
Adding calculations to your OLAP PivotTables
●
Since the release of SQL Server OLAP 7.0, Microsoft Analysis Services has proven to be an analytics
workhorse that has taken and maintained the lead position in the market for OLAP (online analytical
processing) databases. Many of the leading analytics and data visualization tools (including Excel)
provide native connectivity with Analysis Services, providing interaction with a very rich and respon-
sive data store via end-user data tools. Most importantly, there is a significant number of Analysis
Services installations across businesses that are handling reporting, analytics, budgeting, and
planning on a day-to-day basis.
But with all its capabilities, Analysis Services is complex and can present you with a significant learn-
ing curve. Though it serves as a back-end data platform for dashboards and PivotTables, Analysis
Services is not well understood by many end users, remaining a platform and set of tools best under-
stood by database developers. Even though these tools are mostly used by database developers, you
can benefit from learning how they work.
This chapter provides a solid conceptual understanding of what Analysis Services is capable of. This
knowledge not only enhances your abilities when it comes to the ongoing, daily analytics tasks you
perform, but just as important, it significantly enhances your abilities as a team member or leader of
a team focused on business analytics.
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