| OLAP is a technical methodology to give end users | | | | cube can be derived from even massive amounts of |
| instant access to data, irrespective of the size of the | | | | data, leading to this type of technology being a favorite |
| latter. The hardware used in this technology, i.e., OLAP | | | | as far as OLAP servers are concerned. Some of the |
| servers; use cubes, which are basically multidimensional | | | | most common examples of MOLAP tools are Oracle |
| data representations of the data stored in | | | | (IRI) Express and Hyperion (Arbor) Essbase. |
| warehouses. These basically comprise of two kinds of | | | | ROLAP, on the other hand, does not use |
| architectures - relational OLAP and multidimensional | | | | pre-calculated data, and instead intercept the query |
| OLAP. Let's take a closer look at these two in the | | | | and directs the question towards the standard |
| following text. | | | | relational database and its tables to retrieve the data |
| MOLAP, or multidimensional OLAP, tools are based on | | | | needed to answer the query. And this methodology is |
| the implementation of a pre-calculated data set, which | | | | also the reason for its primary disadvantage, i.e., its |
| is also referred to as a data cube. This data cube | | | | slow response time, which has a detrimental effect on |
| comprises all the answers of a defined range of | | | | the client and customer-base of the company using |
| questions. MOLAP is basically a more traditional means | | | | the same. There are also some limitations on the |
| if OLAP analysis, and also the most effective. The | | | | scalability part, depending on the architectural |
| main advantages of an OLAP server based on the | | | | configuration of the technology used. |
| MOLAP concept are quick response, as well as the | | | | So as you can see, MOLAP scores high as compared |
| ability to write back data in the data set. Further, | | | | to ROLAP in all kinds of parameters, which is the |
| MOLAP cubes facilitate easy execution of complex | | | | reason is the primarily used OLAP server across |
| calculations, since all calculations have been | | | | organizations of all shapes and sizes. |
| pre-generated when the cube is created. Further, the | | | | |