Short for Online Analytical Processing, a category of software tools that provides analysis of data stored in a database. OLAP tools enable users to analyze different dimensions of multidimensional data. For example, it provides time series and trend analysis views. OLAP often is used in data mining.
The chief component of OLAP is the OLAP server, which sits between a client and a database management systems (DBMS). The OLAP server understands how data is organized in the database and has special functions for analyzing the data. There are OLAP servers available for nearly all the major database systems.
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services is part of Microsoft SQL Server, a database management system. Microsoft has included a number of services in SQL Server related to business intelligence and data warehousing. These services include Integration Services and Analysis Services. Analysis Services includes a group of OLAP and data mining capabilities.
Oracle Essbase is the industry-leading multi-dimensional online analytical processing (OLAP) server, providing a rich environment for effectively developing custom analytic and enterprise performance management applications. By leveraging its self-managed, rapid application development capabilities, business users can quickly model complex business scenarios. For example, line-of-business personnel can simply and rapidly develop and manage analytic applications that can forecast likely business performance levels and deliver "what-if" analyses for varying conditions. Oracle Essbase supports extremely fast query response times for vast numbers of users, large data sets, and complex business models.
Analysis Services tutorial. Creating OLAP cube. Introduction to data warehouse
