Hybrid OLAP,
Techniques for
Viewing Structures
Richard Doherty
SAS Institute
European HQ
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Agenda
• HOLAP overview
• Viewing technologies
– SAS/EIS
– SAS/IntrNet MDDB Report Viewer
– SWAN Java applet builder
• Demonstration
• Summary
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
HOLAP overview
• What is Hybrid OLAP (HOLAP)?
• Why is it so good?
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
What is HOLAP?
• HOLAP takes the best features from
Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP) and
Relational OLAP (ROLAP)
• MOLAP applications typically exploit single
“cubes”
– SAS/EIS Multidimensional report
• ROLAP applications exploit relational data
stores
– SAS/EIS Motore extension
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
What is HOLAP?
• HOLAP applications exploit multiple cubes
and relational data stores on multiple servers
transparently.
• OK, but what’s good about that?
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
What is HOLAP?
• Users of classic MOLAP were faced with two
issues:
– optimising performance
– enhancing scalability
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
MOLAP issues
A typical C/S packaged OLAP implementation
looked something like this:
MDDB
Client/Server
Remote Library Services
Model
Viewer
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
The Answer - HOLAP
Client/Server
Client/Server
Cache
DATA PROVIDER
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Model
Model
Model
Viewer
Viewer
Viewer
Optimum performance
• HOLAP utilises the servers’ compute
resources
• Only the results are downloaded
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Enhanced scalability
• Data source can be a combination of
datasets, views & MDDBs (star schema
support)
• Larger sub-cubes can be stored in datasets
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
HOLAP viewing technologies
• SAS/EIS
• SAS/IntrNet MDDB Report Viewer
• SWAN Java applet builder
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
SAS/EIS
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•
•
•
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Mature technology
Rich functionality
Many different OLAP report types
Fully customisable
Thick client
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
SAS/Intrnet MDDB Report
Viewer
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Thin client
CGI based
Low specification client
Web browser
No JVM required
Light load time
Light functionality
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
SWAN
•
•
•
•
Software Without A Name
Work in progress
100% pure JAVA application
JAVA OLAP applet builder
–
–
–
–
–
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
talks to the HOLAP model
rich functionality set
web browser (with JAVA Activator)
easy distribution
JDK1.1
SWAN
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•
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•
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Internationalisation
Drill/expand
Rotate
Business graphics
Multiple browser support
Computed columns
……..
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
SWAN
• Thin-client reporting solution for the Web
• Empowers users throughout an organisation
to explore and analyse multidimensional
business data
• Enables an IT department to maintain data on
centralised servers
• Incorporates a scalable client/server
architecture for accessing the data
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
SWAN server
• Reports do not store any data from MDDBs - data
being displayed is always live
• Server running SAS/EIS handles all of the
computation and sends data as the report requests it
• Report minimises network traffic by requesting data
from the server only when it is needed
• HOLAP MDDBs allow the reports to display data from
any data source understood by the SAS System
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Demonstration
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Summary
• Different viewing techniques available
• Each method has its own advantages
• Analyse user requirements and decide which
technology is appropriate
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute
Questions?
Copyright 1998 by SAS Institute