Securing Dimension Data - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - page 728

members associated with employees in a company and perhaps see sales figures for
all employees but not salaries of all employees in the company.

Figure 36.1 shows the difference between dimension security and cell security. Dimension
security removes coordinates from multidimensional space, whereas cell security hides
values of cells.

Dimension
Security

Non-
Consumable

Food

N/A

Cell
Security

Drink

Sales Salary

FIGURE 36.1 Dimension security removes coordinates from multidimensional space, whereas
cell security hides values of cells.

For example, assume that you have a cube that has two measures, Sales and Salary , and
a single dimension, Employees , which contains two managers:

. Ann (with two direct reports: Nancy and Tom)

. John (with two direct reports: Bob and Susann)

If you do not define dimension security or cell security settings on the cube, Ann would
see the report shown in Figure 36.2.

With dimension security, you can allow managers to see information (including informa-
tion about salaries) for their direct reports, but not information about other employees.