Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Essbase Data and Design
Considerations
We have successfully performed the installation of Oracle's Essbase software and
it is functioning correctly. Let's cross-check for a minute, we have the server agent
installed and running, the EAS installed on our client and operating correctly,
and the Oracle Essbase Add-in for Microsoft Excel is also installed on our client in
Microsoft Excel. We are now ready to begin learning and exploring Oracle Essbase!
In this chapter, we will discuss how to use the data elements required by the
customer and transform them from the usual row and column relational schema
into Essbase-friendly meta-data dimensions and data members.
Moving ahead, we will use the Esscar Motor Company as the fictitious business
customer for all of our examples throughout this topic. The Esscar Motor Company
is a traditional multinational automobile manufacturing enterprise.
Introduction to OLAP
OLAP is the common term for Online Analytical Processing and is generally
known to be a multidimensional, client-server computing environment.
The differences between OLAP analytical solutions and traditional data analysis
applications containing backend relational databases are stark. The most obvious
being an OLAP analytical application's ability to provide speedy analysis of broad
slices of data. Programs which are complex and expensive to write would be
required to perform even a fraction of the functionality provided by a simple
Oracle Essbase OLAP application.
