OnLine Analytical Processing

Seminar Presentation By IQxplorer

Under the guidance of Mr. Indraneel Mukhopadhyay

What is OLAP
OnLine Analytical Processing ia a technology that uses multidimensional view of aggregate data for quicker access to strategic information.

How OLAP Helps

It helps in decision making, business modeling, and operations research activities by transforming raw Data warehouse data into strategic information

Four Main Characteristics of OLAP

Use multidimensional data analysis techniques Provide advanced database support

Provide easy-to-use end user interfaces

Support client/server architecture

Multidimensional Data Analysis Techniques

The processing of data in which data are viewed as part of a multidimensional structure.
Multidimensional view allows end users to consolidate or aggregate data at different levels.

Multidimensional Data Analysis

Relational databases contains lists of records whose information is organised into fields and is based on a row and column data format(one dimensional). However some relational tables where there is more than a one-to-one relationship between the fields lends itself to multidiensional represtation.

Single Dimensional View

Product
Nuts
Nuts Nuts Bolts

Region
East
West Central East

Sales
50
60 100 90

Bolts
Bolts Screws Screws

West
Central East West

120
140 40 70

Screws Washers
Washers Washers

Central East
West Central

80 20
10 30

Multidimensional View

East

West

Central

Nuts

50 Bolts 90 Screws 40 Washers 20

60 120 70 10

100 140 80 30

OLAP Architecture
Three Main Modules
OLAP OLAP

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Analytical Processing Logic

OLAP

Data Processing Logic

OLAP systems are designed to use both operational and Data Warehouse data.

OLAP Server Arrangement

OLAP Server With Multidimensional Data Store Arrangement

Relational OLAP
Relational On-Line Analytical Processing (ROLAP) provides OLAP functionality by using relational database and familiar relational query tools. Extensions to RDBMS

Multidimensional data schema support within the

RDBMS

Data access language and query performance

optimized for multidimensional data

Support for very large databases

Multidimensional Data Schema Support within the RDBMS

Normalization

of tables in relational technology is seen as a stumbling block to its use in OLAP systems.
DSS

data tend to be non-normalized, duplicated, and pre-aggregated.

ROLAP

uses a special design technique to enable RDBMS technology to support multidimensional data representations, known as star schema.
Star

schema creates the near equivalent of a multidimensional database schema from the existing relational database

A Typical ROLAP Client/Server Architecture

LIMITATIONS The real limitation of OLAP databases is

almost always the number of cells and not the number of dimensions.

As the number of dimensions increases the

number of cells increases expotentially so a 16 dimension database with 5 members in each has 152 billion cells.

Most OLAP servers reach their limit in cell

numbers before they hit their dimensions limit

CONCLUSION

In essence OLAP technology is fast, flexible

data summarisation and analysis.

OLAP servers are a superior technology for

Business Intellgence applications.

OLAP servers and relational databases can

work in harmony to create an environment that delivers data quickly to perform the analysis needed to make the best business decisions.