Securing Your Data in Analysis Services - Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX - page 1015

Summary
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you! That
should be your mantra as you ponder the possibilities in the security space. In
this chapter, you have seen many possible approaches to keeping your data
secure. You learned about applying permissions to your relational data
sources to help keep them secure, and about how you can restrict access to
data in your Analysis Services databases using one of two types of restriction
— dimension security and cell security. You learned the techniques of applying
dimension security, like how to define roles and how to manage security in a
dynamic business environment. Further, you learned about the relevant design
choices and how they can be implemented in a real business scenario. You
learned how to apply cell security to restrict data at the cell level for certain
defined roles at your company. That technique can prevent members of the
targeted roles from seeing confidential information. With all that information
and the samples demonstrated in this chapter, you should have a good grasp
of the techniques and challenges associated with security in Analysis Services.
It was our goal with this topic to get you to learn through hands-on work which
started as early as Chapter 2 . Our other goal was to get you to learn through
interaction with sample scenarios, of which there were two, "real-time OLAP"
and "dimensions and cell security." We sincerely hope that these goals to en-
gage you for a more powerful learning experience were realized. Less critical,
but still important, was the need to impart our sense of possibility and excite-
ment about the powerful user interface and complete SQL Server Business In-
telligence stack. Like any software system, it has its strengths and weak-
nesses, but taken as a whole, the strengths far out-weigh the weaknesses.
What you can accomplish using this environment is nothing less than pro-
found. Decide what you want to accomplish and then figure out how to do it us-
ing the appropriate tools — chances are very good the system will accommod-
ate your plans. Where possible we threw in some business education — know-
ing all the while it would not be comprehensive — just to stimulate your appet-
ite for business knowledge. We strongly encourage you to follow up on that as-
pect of your education moving forward.
We hope you enjoyed this topic and learned a lot from it. Please do email any
comments about the topic to us, positive or negative. We plan to upload addi-
tional samples and/or white papers on the web site associated with this topic