Microsoft Analysis Services

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
Developer(s) Microsoft
Stable release Analysis Services 2016 / December 21, 2010 (2010-12-21)
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Type OLAP, Data Mining
License Microsoft EULA
Website http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc510300.aspx

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, SSAS (and sometimes MSAS),[1] is an online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining tool in Microsoft SQL Server. SSAS is used as a tool by organizations to analyze and make sense of information possibly spread out across multiple databases, or in disparate tables or files. Microsoft has included a number of services in SQL Server related to business intelligence and data warehousing. These services include Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services. Analysis Services includes a group of OLAP and data mining capabilities and comes in two flavors - Multidimensional and Tabular.

History

In 1996, Microsoft began its foray into the OLAP Server business by acquiring the OLAP software technology from Canada-based Panorama Software.[2] Just over two years later, in 1998, Microsoft released OLAP Services as part of SQL Server 7. OLAP Services supported MOLAP, ROLAP, and HOLAP architectures, and it used OLE DB for OLAP as the client access API and MDX as a query language. It could work in client-server mode or offline mode with local cube files.[3]

In 2000, Microsoft released Analysis Services 2000. It was renamed from "OLAP Services" due to the inclusion of data mining services. Analysis Services 2000 was considered an evolutionary release, since it was built on the same architecture as OLAP Services and was therefore backward compatible with it. Major improvements included more flexibility in dimension design through support of parent child dimensions, changing dimensions, and virtual dimensions. Another feature was a greatly enhanced calculation engine with support for unary operators, custom rollups, and cell calculations. Other features were dimension security, distinct count, connectivity over HTTP, session cubes, grouping levels, and many others.[4]

In 2005, Microsoft released the next generation of OLAP and data mining technology as Analysis Services 2005. It maintained backward compatibility on the API level: although applications written with OLE DB for OLAP and MDX continued to work, the architecture of the product was completely different. The major change came to the model in the form of UDM - Unified Dimensional Model.[5]

Timeline

The key events in the history of Microsoft Analysis Services cover a period starting in 1996.

Microsoft Analysis Services Events
Date Event
1996-07-01 Microsoft opens new team to build an OLAP product, codenamed Plato (permutation of letters from OLAP)
1996-07-15 Panorama Software delegation meets with Microsoft
1996-10-27 Microsoft announces acquisition of Panorama Software development team
1998-11 OLAP Services 7.0 (codename Sphinx) ships
2000-08 Analysis Services 2000 (codename Shiloh) ships
2001-11 XML for Analysis Software Development Kit 1.0 ships
2003-04 ADOMD.NET and XML for Analysis SDK 1.1 ship
2005-10-28 Analysis Services 2005 (codename Yukon) ships
2008-08-06 Analysis Services 2008 (codename Katmai) ships
2012-03-06 Analysis Services 2012
2014-04-01 Analysis Services 2014

Multidimensional Storage modes

Microsoft Analysis Services takes a neutral position in the MOLAP vs. ROLAP arguments among OLAP products. It allows all the flavors of MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP to be used within the same model.

Partition storage modes

Dimension storage modes


APIs and object models

Microsoft Analysis Services supports different sets of APIs and object models for different operations and in different programming environments.

Querying

Administration and management

Query languages

Microsoft Analysis Services supports the following query languages

Data definition language (DDL)

DDL in Analysis Services is XML based and supports commands such as <Create>, <Alter>, <Delete>, and <Process>. For data mining models import and export, it also supports PMML.

Data manipulation language (DML)

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

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