MicroStrategy 9

In-memory ROLAP: Improving Performance of Departmental

BI Applications
Copyright Information
All Contents Copyright 2009 MicroStrategy Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy 6, MicroStrategy 7, MicroStrategy 7i, MicroStrategy 7i Evaluation Edition, MicroStrategy 7i Olap Services, MicroStrategy 8, MicroStrategy 9, MicroStrategy Distribution
Services, MicroStrategy MultiSource Option, MicroStrategy Command Manager, MicroStrategy Enterprise Manager, MicroStrategy Object Manager, MicroStrategy Reporting Suite, MicroStrategy Power User,
MicroStrategy Analyst, MicroStrategy Consumer, MicroStrategy Email Delivery, MicroStrategy BI Author, MicroStrategy BI Modeler, MicroStrategy Evaluation Edition, MicroStrategy Administrator, MicroStrategy
Agent, MicroStrategy Architect, MicroStrategy BI Developer Kit, MicroStrategy Broadcast Server, MicroStrategy Broadcaster, MicroStrategy Broadcaster Server, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform,
MicroStrategy Consulting, MicroStrategy CRM Applications, MicroStrategy Customer Analyzer, MicroStrategy Desktop, MicroStrategy Desktop Analyst, MicroStrategy Desktop Designer, MicroStrategy eCRM 7,
MicroStrategy Education, MicroStrategy eTrainer, MicroStrategy Executive, MicroStrategy Infocenter, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Universal Edition, MicroStrategy MDX
Adapter, MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, MicroStrategy Objects, MicroStrategy OLAP Provider, MicroStrategy SDK, MicroStrategy Support, MicroStrategy Telecaster, MicroStrategy Transactor, MicroStrategy
Web, MicroStrategy Web Business Analyzer, MicroStrategy World, Alarm, Alarm.com, Alert.com, Angel, Angel.com, Application Development and Sophisticated Analysis, Best In Business Intelligence,
Centralized Application Management, Changing The Way Government Looks At Information, DSSArchitect, DSS Broadcaster, DSS Broadcaster Server, DSS Office, DSSServer, DSS Subscriber, DSS Telecaster,
DSSWeb, eBroadcaster, eCaster, eStrategy, eTelecaster, Information Like Water, Insight Is Everything, Intelligence Through Every Phone, Your Telephone Just Got Smarter, Intelligence To Every Decision Maker,
Intelligent E-Business, IWAPU, Personal Intelligence Network, Personalized Intelligence Portal, Query Tone, Quickstrike, Rapid Application Development, Strategy.com, Telepath, Telepath Intelligence, Telepath
Intelligence (and Design), MicroStrategy Intelligent Cubes, The E-Business Intelligence Platform, The Foundation For Intelligent E-Business, The Integrated Business Intelligence Platform Built For The Enterprise,
The Intelligence Company, The Platform For Intelligent E-Business, The Power Of Intelligent eBusiness, The Power Of Intelligent E-Business, The Scalable Business Intelligence Platform Built For The Internet,
Industrial-Strength Business Intelligence, Office Intelligence, MicroStrategy Office, MicroStrategy Report Services, MicroStrategy Web MMT, MicroStrategy Web Services, Pixel Perfect, MicroStrategy Mobile,
MicroStrategy Integrity Manager and MicroStrategy Data Mining Services are all registered trademarks or trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated.

All other products are trademarks of their respective holders. Specifications subject to change without notice. MicroStrategy is not responsible for errors or omissions. MicroStrategy makes no warranties or
commitments concerning the availability of future products or versions that may be planned or under development. MicroStrategy does not guarantee the accuracy of any information presented in this docu-
ment, and there is no commitment, express or implied, on the part of MicroStrategy to update or otherwise amend this document. The furnishing of this document does not provide any license to patents,
trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property rights owned or held by MicroStrategy.

PATENT INFORMATION
This product is patented. One or more of the following patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033, 6,501,832,
6,567,796, 6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100, 6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,707,889, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768,
6,792,086, 6,798,867, 6,801,910, 6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693, 6,885,734, 6,888,929, 6,895,084, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569,
7,003,512, 7,010,518, 7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165, 7,082,422, 7,113,993, 7,181,417, 7,127,403, 7,174,349, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639,
7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840, 7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562, 7,440,898, 7,457,397 and 7,486,780. Other patent applications are pending.
I. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 2
II. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2
III. Improving Performance through In-memory ROLAP ................................................................... 3
In-memory ROLAP for faster deployments, maximum performance, and end user self-service ............ 4
IV. Test Environment ............................................................................................................................ 5
Architecture Overview........................................................................................................................ 5
Hardware and Software Conguration ............................................................................................... 5
Testing Tools ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Testing Project ................................................................................................................................... 6
Test Congurations ............................................................................................................................ 7
V. Results Analysis and Discussion ...................................................................................................... 8
User Scalability Results ....................................................................................................................... 8
Data Scalability Results ....................................................................................................................... 9
Results Summary ............................................................................................................................. 10
VI. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 11
MicroStrategy 9: In-Memory ROLAP
2
MicroStrategy 9: In-Memory ROLAP
1
Performance improvement varies considerably depending on each specic environment.
I. Executive Summary
This document presents the results of a departmental benchmark performed to demonstrate the In-memory ROLAP
capabilities of the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence (BI) platform. The tests show how MicroStrategy 9

with its
unique In-memory ROLAP technology, can considerably improve the performance and scalability of departmental BI
applications while still solving the toughest business queries.
All reports used for this study are based on queries from the TPC-H benchmark, a publicly available decision support
benchmark that mimics realistic business questions.
The tests results show:
In-memory ROLAP delivers up to 10x higher query performance than database execution.
The average response time improvement is most evident at higher user load.
In-memory ROLAP provides higher performance improvements as databases grow in size and scope.
For a 20 GB TPC-H warehouse, queries running against In-memory ROLAP cubes performed up to 36x
1
faster
than those running directly against the relational database.
In-memory ROLAP supports the most complex queries to answer critical business questions with unparalleled
performance.
MicroStrategy 9 with In-memory ROLAP provides a solid platform ideal to deploy fast, scalable departmental
BI applications, setting the foundation for longer-term BI initiatives.
II. Introduction
Increasingly, individual departments are taking a hands-on approach to BI, sparking proliferation of single purpose
departmental BI applications. This has created an enormous market opportunity for new and existing vendors
that focus on quick but narrow solutions. Unfortunately, many BI tools are fairly limited in their ability to generate
queries that solve complex but fairly common business questions. Moreover, many of these quick solutions do
not scale properly to meet the growing needs of individual departments, setting the stage for failure.
Thanks to its exceptional scalability, analytical depth, and fully integrated architecture, MicroStrategy has long
been recognized as the leading platform to deploy enterprise-wide BI applications. Today, MicroStrategy 9
brings all the technology that supports the most sophisticated enterprise-wide deployments, to workgroup and
departmental applications.
3
9

With In-memory ROLAP

Ideal for Departmental BI
MicroStrategy
Intelligence Server
Terabyte
Databases
Millions of users
Most complex queries
Terabytes of data
Unparallel performance
Hundreds of users
Most complex queries
Gigabytes of data
Even higher performance
9

Ideal for Enterprise BI

rs
Terabyte
Databases
MicroStrategy
Intelligence Server
Figure 1: MicroStrategy 9, with In-memory ROLAP, brings all the technology used to support the most sophisticated enterprise-wide deployments,
to workgroup and departmental applications.
This paper shows how MicroStrategy 9, with its unique In-memory ROLAP technology, can help companies to easily
deploy scalable, high performance departmental BI applications to solve the most complex business questions.
III. Improving Performance through In-memory ROLAP
Performance and scalability play a key role for the long-term success of any BI application. According to The BI
Survey, the most comprehensive survey of the BI market space, query performance is consistently cited as one of the
most common deterrents to wider BI deployments
2
.
MicroStrategy 9 is a full featured BI platform built from the ground up to support the wide variety of BI applications.
With MicroStrategy, companies can jump-start their BI initiatives by rapidly building departmental applications.
As these applications grow and mature, MicroStrategy scales to seamlessly support more users, more data, more
analyses, and more BI functionality.
2
BARC, Nigel Pendse, February 2008: The BI Survey 7.
4
MicroStrategy 9: In-Memory ROLAP
In-memory ROLAP for faster deployments, maximum performance, and end user self-service
Departmental BI applications often have limited access to corporate databases and IT resources, which leads
to much longer implementation times as different departments struggle for attention from stretched IT teams.
Moreover, departments might be locked into what Gartner
3
calls an Excel culture where most data analysis and
calculations are performed in spreadsheets, creating inconsistent silos of information. MicroStrategys In-memory
ROLAP technology allows BI users to build in-memory data stores with information from multiple sources, including
Excel spreadsheets. With In-memory ROLAP, departments can effectively reduce dependency on IT resources
by creating their own in-memory cubes and ofoading queries from databases for faster, speed-of-thought
performance. Departmental users can benet from highly intuitive interfaces to easily manipulate data and generate
completely new analyses using the same paradigms with which they are familiar. Users can still access all of their
reports and dashboards through popular productivity tools such as Microsoft Ofce. With all reports and analyses
coming from a central place, the entire department has a single focus with consistent information and a single
version of the truth.
In-memory
Cube Databases
Disparate Sources
Business Users
Departmental BI
with In-memory ROLAP with In memo
In m
Bus
R OL AP Me t a d a t a
Figure 2: MicroStrategy 9 with In-memory ROLAP enables scalable departmental
BI deployments, without additional technology infrastructure.
The following sections of this white paper, demonstrate the superior analytical depth, performance, and scalability
of MicroStrategys In-memory ROLAP technology, making it ideal for departmental BI applications.
3
Gartner Research, September 12th, 2008: Succeed With Business Intelligence by Avoiding Nine Fatal Flaws.
5
IV. Test Environment
Architecture Overview
MicroStrategy is the rst BI architecture to support all levels of BI with a single platform. MicroStrategy 9 brings
all the benets of an architecture engineered to support the most sophisticated enterprise BI applications to
workgroup and departmental deployments.
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server

is the core processing and management tier of the MicroStrategy Business

Intelligence platform. As the central point of contact to the databases, Intelligence Server dynamically interprets
and selects the optimum resolution path for each query, from highly optimized multi-pass SQL to in-memory
cubes and multi-dimensional caches. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server retrieves the information, performs any
additional calculations, and delivers the reports to business users via MicroStrategy Web

, MicroStrategy Desktop

,
MicroStrategy Ofce

, MicroStrategy Mobile

, and any other third-party applications accessing the MicroStrategy APIs.

MicroStrategy OLAP Services

, a plug-in component of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server, enables In-memory

ROLAP to accelerate deployment and increase performance of BI applications. It brings the exibility, speed, and
analytical power of in-memory analysis to the MicroStrategy BI platform, while preserving all the strengths of the
unied MicroStrategy architecture. Creating cubes with MicroStrategy 9 is as easy as creating a new report. In-
memory cube denitions are stored in the metadata and are completely transparent to end users. MicroStrategy
Intelligence Server populates the in-memory cubes ahead of time through scheduling and caching. When the rst
user runs a report, the data is ready and loaded into memory from a binary cache le, eliminating the need to query
the database.
Hardware and Software Conguration
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server with OLAP Services was installed on DELL PowerEdge servers with 64-bit Intel
Xeon processors.
An Oracle database was used to host the MicroStrategy metadata and the TPC-H benchmark data warehouse.
In order to conduct the different test cases, the size of the data warehouse varied from 5 to 20 GB.
A separate desktop PC was used to host MicroStrategy Integrity Manager

, the testing tool.

Architectural
Component
Hardware Software Operating System
Business Intelligence
Server
1 - Dell PowerEdge Server
2 Quad-core Intel Xeon
CPUs at 2.66 Ghz.
32 GB RAM
MicroStrategy Intelligence
Server Universal (64-bits)
with MicroStrategy OLAP
Services 9.0 Beta 2
RedHat Enterprise Linux 5
Business Intelligence
Testing Tool
1 - Dell Desktop Computer
1 Dual-core Intel Xeon
CPUs at 2.4 Ghz.
4 GB RAM
MicroStrategy Integrity
Manager 9.0 Beta 2
Windows XP Professional
Edition
Business Intelligence
Metadata and TPC-H
Benchmark Database
1 - Dell PowerEdge Server
2 Quad-core Intel Xeon
CPUs at 2.66 Ghz.
32 GB RAM
256 GB Disk
Oracle 11g RedHat Enterprise Linux 5
Figure 3: Hardware and software conguration.
6
MicroStrategy 9: In-Memory ROLAP
Testing Tools
User activity and report executions were simulated using MicroStrategy Integrity Manager, a powerful tool for BI
testers, developers, and administrators that can automatically test and validate large sets of reports. MicroStrategy
Integrity Manager was used to validate report data and measure average response time for each test scenario.
Testing Project
A MicroStrategy project was built using the TPC-H benchmark, a widely accepted decision support benchmark that
comprises multiple ad hoc queries. According to the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC), the TPC-H
benchmark illustrates decision support systems that deal with large data volumes, execute complex queries, and
provide answers to critical business questions
4
.
The TPC-H benchmark was selected for these tests as it is highly effective in simulating real-life ad hoc queries
representative of any business that manages, sells, or distributes products. The benchmark includes queries from
a variety of business areas such as pricing, supply and demand analysis, protability, customer satisfaction, and
others. Each query is highly parameterized, therefore actual query results depend on the specic answers selected
by the users. This approach produces far more realistic and dynamic scenarios as opposed to vendor dened
benchmarks which simply serve static queries tailored to the specic BI tool. The following is a sample of
queries used during the tests
5
. Detailed information about all queries included in the TPC-H benchmark can be
found at: http://www.tpc.org/tpch/
Pricing Summary Report. A query providing a summary pricing report for all items shipped as of a given
date. The query lists totals for extended price, discounted extended price, discounted extended price plus tax,
average quantity, average extended price, and average discount.
Minimum Cost Supplier Query. A report providing the supplier with the lowest cost for a given part in a
given region. In case several suppliers offer the same minimum price, the query lists only the top 100 suppliers
ranked by account balances.
Forecasting Revenue Change Query. A what-if query showing the amount of revenue increase that
would have originated IF certain discounts within a given range for a given year were eliminated.
4
TPC Benchmark H, Standard Specication, Revision 2.8.0.
5
Information about the TPC-H benchmark including descriptions for each query is taken from the TPC Benchmark H, Standard
Specication, Revision 2.8.0
7
Test Congurations
MicroStrategy Integrity Manager was used to submit random ad hoc queries to MicroStrategy Intelligence Server as
shown in Figure 4.

MicroStrategy
Integrity Manager
1-Dell Desktop PC
1 Dual-core Intel Xeon
CPU at 2.4 Ghz.
4 GB RAM
Database Server
1-Dell PowerEdge Server
2 Quad-core Intel Xeon
CPU at 2.66 Ghz.
32 GB RAM
256 GB Disk
MicroStrategy Intelligence
Server Universal (64-bits)
with OLAP Services
1-Dell PowerEdge Server
2 Quad-core Intel Xeon
CPU at 2.66 Ghz.
32 GB RAM
Figure 4. Shows the overall testing conguration. The conguration above remained constant for all tests.
No delays were included in any of the testing scripts, meaning all report executions were truly concurrent. Adding
delays into the system can effectively reduce the real level of concurrency, making a system appear more scalable when
in reality many of the users were idle. For the purpose of this study, we assume a concurrent user to active user ratio of
5%. In general, concurrent to active user ratios vary depending on the specic production environment.
In order to demonstrate the scalability of MicroStrategy 9 In-memory ROLAP architecture, benchmarks were run for
different data volumes, more typical of departmental BI applications: 5, 10 and 20 GB.
In-memory cubes, covering all the TPC-H queries, were created as part of the MicroStrategy project. We assumed
the situation in which departments load most of the available data into memory for faster performance and less
dependency on the data warehouse. Therefore, the aggregate size of all cubes in memory is comparable to the size
of the corresponding data warehouse.
Figure 5 summarizes all the test cases performed for this analysis. In each case, average query response time is
compared with and without In-memory ROLAP.
Data Warehouse Size (GB) Active Users
Aggregated Size of
In-memory Cubes (GB)
5 60, 200, 400 5
10 60, 200, 400 10
20 60, 200, 400 20
Figure 5. Test cases for each data warehouse size.
8
MicroStrategy 9: In-Memory ROLAP
V. Results Analysis and Discussion
User Scalability Results
User scalability is the ability of a given system, in this case a BI application, to support an increasing number of users
efciently and with reasonable performance.
Benchmark tests at increasing levels of concurrency show:
1. In-memory ROLAP technology delivers consistently faster average response time than the RDBMS.
2. Greater performance improvements are observed at higher user loads.
Average Response Time for a 10GB Dataset
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
A
v
g
.

Q
u
e
r
y

E
x
e
c
u
t
i
o
n

T
i
m
e


(
S
)
Active Users
Database In-Memory ROLAP

Figure 6. Average response time for In-memory ROLAP queries remains relatively constant when number of users increase.
3. At the highest load of 400 active users, queries running against in-memory cubes performed up to 10x faster
than queries running against the relational database.
4. In-memory ROLAP delivers superior improvements for the most complex queries.
Detail Results for 10GB Dataset and 400 Active Users
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
A
v
e
r
a
g
e
R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e
T
im
e
(
s
)

0
1
. P
ric
e
S
u
m
m
a
ry
R
e
p
o
rt
0
6
. F
o
re
c
a
s
t R
e
v
e
n
u
e
1
1
. Im
p
o
rta
n
t S
to
c
k
Id
e
n
tif
c
a
tio
n
0
4
. O
rd
e
r P
rio
rity
C
h
e
c
k
in
g
R
e
p
o
rt
1
2
. S
h
ip
p
in
g
M
o
d
e
s
a
n
d
O
rd
e
r P
rio
rity
0
7
. V
o
lu
m
e
S
h
ip
p
in
g
1
5
. T
o
p
S
u
p
p
lie
r
1
6
. P
a
rt/S
u
p
p
lie
r R
e
la
tio
n
s
h
ip
0
5
. L
o
c
a
l S
u
p
p
lie
r V
o
lu
m
e
1
4
. P
ro
m
o
tio
n
E
f
e
c
t
1
9
. D
is
c
o
u
n
te
d
R
e
v
e
n
u
e
1
7
. S
m
a
ll-Q
u
a
n
tity
-O
rd
e
r R
e
v
e
n
u
e
1
0
. R
e
tu
rn
e
d
Ite
m
R
e
p
o
rtin
g
0
3
. S
h
ip
p
in
g
P
rio
rity
R
e
p
o
rt
1
8
. L
a
rg
e
V
o
lu
m
e
C
u
s
to
m
e
r
0
8
. N
a
tio
n
a
l M
a
rk
e
t S
h
a
re
2
0
. P
o
te
n
tia
l P
a
rt P
ro
m
o
tio
n
w
ith
o
u
t R
e
p
o
rt L
im
ita
tio
n
2
1
. S
u
p
p
lie
rs
W
h
o
K
e
p
t O
rd
e
rs
W
a
itin
g
0
2
. M
in
im
u
m
C
o
s
t S
u
p
p
lie
r s
a
s
0
9
. P
ro
d
u
c
t T
y
p
e
P
ro
f
t M
e
a
s
u
re

DB
In-memory
DB Avg. RT:329 s.
In-memory Avg. RT: 32 s.
10x
Figure 7. Average response time for all TPC-H queries can improve up to 10x on average when using in-memory cubes.
9
Data Scalability Results
Similarly, data scalability can be dened as the applications ability to support increasing data volumes efciently and
with reasonable performance.
Benchmark tests at increasing data volumes show:
1. MicroStrategys In-memory ROLAP provides consistently faster query performance than the RDBMS.
2. Greater performance improvements are observed at higher data volumes.
Average Query Execution Time for 400 Active Users
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
0 5 10 15 20 25
A
v
g
.

Q
u
e
r
y

E
x
e
c
u
t
i
o
n

T
i
m
e


(
S
)
Data Warehouse Size (GB)
Database In-Memory ROLAP
Figure 8. In-memory ROLAP shows greater performance improvements at higher data volumes.
3. For a 20GB warehouse, queries running against In-memory ROLAP cubes can perform up to 36x
6
faster than
those running against the relational database.
Detail Results for 20GB Dataset and 400 Active Users
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
3000
2000
1000
0
DB
In-memory
DB Avg. RT:2054 s.
In-memory Avg. RT: 57 s.
A
v
e
r
a
g
e
R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e
T
im
e
(
s
)
36x

0
4
. O
rd
e
r P
rio
rity
C
h
e
c
k
in
g
R
e
p
o
rt
0
1
. P
ric
e
S
u
m
m
a
ry
R
e
p
o
rt
1
2
. S
h
ip
p
in
g
M
o
d
e
s a
n
d
O
rd
e
r P
rio
rity
0
5
. L
o
c
a
l S
u
p
p
lie
r V
o
lu
m
e
0
6
. F
o
re
c
a
st R
e
v
e
n
u
e
1
1
. Im
p
o
rta
n
t S
to
c
k
Id
e
n
tif
c
a
tio
n
0
3
. S
h
ip
p
in
g
P
rio
rity
R
e
p
o
rt
1
0
. R
e
tu
rn
e
d
Ite
m
R
e
p
o
rtin
g
1
6
. P
a
rt/S
u
p
p
lie
r R
e
la
tio
n
sh
ip
1
7
. S
m
a
ll-Q
u
a
n
tity
-O
rd
e
r R
e
v
e
n
u
e
1
4
. P
ro
m
o
tio
n
E
f
e
c
t
1
9
. D
isc
o
u
n
te
d
R
e
v
e
n
u
e
1
5
. T
o
p
S
u
p
p
lie
r
0
7
. V
o
lu
m
e
S
h
ip
p
in
g
2
0
. P
o
te
n
tia
l P
a
rt P
ro
m
o
tio
n
w
ith
o
u
t R
e
p
o
rt L
im
ita
tio
n
1
8
. L
a
rg
e
V
o
lu
m
e
C
u
sto
m
e
r
0
2
. M
in
im
u
m
C
o
st S
u
p
p
lie
r sa
s
0
8
. N
a
tio
n
a
l M
a
rk
e
t S
h
a
re
2
1
. S
u
p
p
lie
rs W
h
o
K
e
p
t O
rd
e
rs W
a
itin
g
0
9
. P
ro
d
u
c
t T
y
p
e
P
ro
f
t M
e
a
su
re

Figure 9. Average response time for all TPC-H queries improved up to 36x on average when using in-memory cubes.
6
Performance improvement varies considerably depending on each specic environment.
10
MicroStrategy 9: In-Memory ROLAP
Results Summary
Summary results for all test cases are shown in Figure 10 below. The results show:
For each test case, In-memory ROLAP shows consistently higher query performance than database execution.
The average response time improvement is most evident at higher user and data volumes.
In-memory ROLAP provides relatively lower increases in query response time as number of users increase.
In-memory ROLAP shows relatively lower increases in query response time, for growing data volumes.

Average Query Response Time vs. Active
Users for Different Data Sizes
Average Query Response Time vs. Data Size
for Different Concurrencies
Figure 10a Data Size = 5 GB Figure 10d. Active Users = 50
Figure 10b Data Size = 10 GB Figure 10e. Active Users = 200
Figure 10c Data Size = 20 GB Figure 10f. Active Users = 400
Figure 10. In-memory ROLAP shows consistently better query performance than database execution for all test cases.




11
VI. Conclusion
The results validate that MicroStrategy 9, with its unique In-memory ROLAP technology, provides substantial
performance improvements for departmental BI applications. Thanks to In-memory ROLAP, business users can
quickly create and deploy departmental BI applications that seamlessly scale to support more data and more users
with optimum performance.
MicroStrategy 9 allows departments to easily deploy scalable departmental BI applications due to three core
technological capabilities:
1. In-memory ROLAP capabilities to ofoad costly and frequently run queries from the database by creating
in-memory cubes for speed-of-thought performance.
2. Unparalleled analytical sophistication to solve the most complex business queries in-memory.
3. A proven BI platform that seamlessly scales to accommodate increasing user and data volumes.
As departmental applications grow to support more users and more data, In-memory ROLAP scales to provide
increased performance with less dependency on the database.
Specically, the test results show:
In-memory ROLAP delivers up to 10x query performance improvements for increasing numbers of concurrent
requests.
The average response time improvement is most evident at higher user load.
In-memory ROLAP provides higher performance improvements as databases grow in size and scope.
For a 20 GB TPC-H benchmark warehouse, queries running against In-memory ROLAP cubes performed up
to 36x
7
faster than those running against the relational database.
In-memory ROLAP supports the most complex queries to answer critical business questions with exceptional
performance.
MicroStrategy 9 combines the superior performance of in-memory technology with the analytical sophistication
of a true ROLAP architecture to answer the toughest business questions.
The results validate MicroStrategy 9 with In-memory ROLAP and provide a solid platform to deploy fast, scalable
departmental BI applications, setting the foundation for longer-term BI initiatives.
7
Performance improvement varies considerably depending on each specic environment.
MicroStrategy Incorporated 1861 International Drive McLean, VA 22102 703.848.8600 www.microstrategy.com COLL-0881 0409