Looking To The Future With Microsoft And Oracle OLAP

In my latest article for DBAZine.com, entitled "A Look Into The Future Of Microsoft And Oracle OLAP", I take a look forward to some of the features planned for Oracle 10g OLAP and Microsoft Analysis Services 2005.

For Microsoft, the emphasis on Analysis Services 2005 is around making it easier to get data into analysis services cubes, with a unified dimensional model that works against both relational and multidimensional data, and proactive caching which moves and aggregates data into multidimensional cubes without DBA intervention. For Oracle, the effort is all around scalability and concurrency, and with the emphasis on moving OLAP processing into the relational database, rather than moving relational data into a separate OLAP server.

The big difference though is around data access languages, with Microsoft moving towards MDX, and XML/A, as their preferred query language for all warehouse data, whilst Oracle are betting that SQL, with analytic extensions, is the superior choice for both OLAP and relational reporting. All in all, an interesting set of developments, so take a look when you get a chance.