Analyzing company data with different views can be important. The OLAP-based analytics are famous for that. The term OLAP was introduced in the 1990s by Ted Codd. He also defined the famous twelve rules for OLAP technology. They include transparency, client/server architecture, etc.
Online Analytical Processing, or OLAP for short, is a system that lets users collect, display, and analyze corporate data from many perspectives. More about it will be covered in this post.
We will discuss whether or not this technology is dead. Let’s start.
How Did OLAP-Based Analytics Start?
OLAP cubes are the objects that hold the data that has been examined. It was created so that business intelligence (BI) tools could readily query the data while also storing it in a manner that would be recognizable to people. The primary benefit of using OLAP cubes was the ease and speed with which data analysts and developers could aggregate data from the data warehouse into a single repository.
They helped to overcome the limitations of relational databases and ensured rapid multidimensional data analysis.
The rising popularity of OLAP data analytics and OLAP cubes led to the introduction of the first OLAP server, Microsoft Analysis Services, in 1998, which created momentum for further OLAP technology development.
![How did OLAP-Based Analytics Start?](https://tricksmode.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-49.png)
Pros and Cons of OLAP Processing
As with any other technology, OLAP processing has its pros and cons.
Among the pros, one can mention:
- Consistency of information and calculations
- Absence of complex SQL query statements
- Possibility to apply “what if” scenarios in data analysis
- Using broad business terms instead of narrow business analysis ones
- The wide popularity of spreadsheet applications using OLAP processing
- flat learning curve
Of course, there are also some cons:
- There might be issues with the data integration
- Management and maintenance of complex OLAP data cubes can be pretty resourceful
- Processing the cube data can take a long time in case the amount of data is huge
It is fair to say that these are important factors that lead to heated discussions of OLAP becoming too expensive and cumbersome as compared to other approaches.
Of course, depending on your business model, the structure of your business data, and infrastructure, some pros and cons can outweigh the others. While OLAP processing technology can be the perfect data analysis choice for one business, it might mismatch another one.
Is OLAP Really Dead?
Articles on whether OLAP analytics is becoming obsolete have been resurfacing on the Internet for the last fifteen years, with opinions varying from OLAP being long dead to it being more alive and better than ever.
Neither of these polarized opinions seems to be completely correct or completely wrong.
Undoubtedly, the business intelligence market has undergone great changes in recent years, and numerous new technologies have appeared, many of them outperforming the old ones in certain aspects. However, when we look at the array of popular BI tools, such as Ranet OLAP or Tableau, or OLAP vendors, which include such tech giants as Microsoft, IBM, and SAP, it becomes obvious that OLAP analytics is definitely not dead, but rather undergoes massive changes. The model of dimensions and measures is still topical, but the underlying technology and the way we use it are changing.
As a result, OLAP-based BI tools are undergoing drastic changes, too, trying to provide their users with more and more advanced features. For example, one of the most popular tools nowadays, Ranet OLAP, has been introducing more data sources that can be used for data analysis, developing UI for complicated forms of business analysis and forecasting, making the tool as easy to integrate into other solutions as possible, etc. All these features are becoming more and more sought after in a BI tool, and BI vendors are increasingly developing them.
![Is OLAP Really Dead?](https://tricksmode.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-1024x419.png)
Sump Up
All in all, OLAP-Based Analytics and BI tools that use it have been facing heavy competition from other technologies but continue to occupy an important place in the BI world. OLAP will keep changing and improving to encompass more complex budgeting, forecasting, and business planning capabilities.
FAQs:
What type of data I can analyze with OLAP-based Analytics?
You can analyze multidimensional data with the help of it.
Is using this technology costly?
This depends on the needs of your company. Some tools can be expensive for you. Some of them have cheaper pricing.
Is this a productive way of analyzing?
Yes. This can be a productive way of analyzing if done in the right way.