Question about OLAP Cubes

[Catadmin]

This is a general information question. As I bone up on the more esoteric (to me) items in SQL, I was wondering if anyone has ever used an OLAP Cube in a production or data warehousing environment.

The main question is, can anyone give me RL scenarios where OLAP Cubes are useful and why they would be used over other methods of gathering data?

You can, of course, change the names to protect the innocent. @=) I'm not looking for anything confidential, just better examples of when and why OLAP Cubes are used than BOL provides.

Thanks!!



Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean the universe *isn't* out to get me!"

 

[vongrunt]

This is very broad topic... what you exactly mean by "other methods of gathering data"? Ad hoc SELECTs, vanilla reporting or something else?

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[johnherman]

Firstly, this might be better suited for one of the other forums:
forum450, forum960

Secondly, OLAP, On Line Analytical Processing, is similar to Data Warehousing in that the architect designs a model to represent all or part of the business processes under consideration. The modeler assumes that he/she understands the business (right or wrong assumption) and develops metrics, key performance indicators, and other measures to determine business success across the major variables (dimesnions) of the business. Examples of dimensions are products, time, customers, vendors, sales channels, etc.

hope this helps a little

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