Introduction to Analysis Services 2008 R2 Cubes SQL Saturday #64 Baton Rouge, 2011 06 August, 2011

Presenter Introduction Peter Myers Mentor, SolidQ BBus, MCITP (Dev, DBA, BI), MCT, MVP 14 years of experience designing and developing software solutions using Microsoft products, today specializing in Microsoft Business Intelligence Based in San Francisco pmyers@solidq.com © 2011 SolidQ

Agenda Introducing OLAP Databases Introducing Analysis Services Querying the UDM Enriching the UDM A Message to Developers Next Generation OLAP From Microsoft Resources © 2011 SolidQ

Introducing OLAP Databases Contain queryable structures called cubes Cubes: Are optimized for rapid ad hoc information retrieval Include a calculation engine for fast, flexible transformation of base data Encapsulate business rules, calculations and actions Can be translated to different languages Promote self-service reporting and analysis © 2011 SolidQ

What sales did we expect to achieve in North America for CY 2004 Q1? Querying the Cube What sales did we expect to achieve in North America for CY 2004 Q1? 20,500 © 2011 SolidQ

Business Scenarios Sales analysis Budgeting and forecast collection and reporting Financial reporting Web statistics analysis Survey results analysis Or, any scenario involving aggregated data that needs to be queried fast and flexibly at different levels of summarization © 2011 SolidQ

Introducing Analysis Services OLAP component Aggregates and organizes data from business data sources Performs calculations difficult to perform using relational queries Supports advanced Business Intelligence, including Key Performance Indicators Provides a business semantic model referred to as the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) Data mining component Discovers patterns in both relational and OLAP data Enhances the OLAP component with discovered results © 2011 SolidQ

Introducing the UDM Provides a bridge between the end user and the data sources Consolidates business rules into a single model Challenges traditional models Commonly called a Cube © 2011 SolidQ

DEMONSTRATION Browsing a Cube © 2011 SolidQ

Querying the UDM Cubes are queried with MDX – Multi Dimensional Expressions Microsoft provide four possibilities for business users to query cubes without the need to know MDX: Microsoft Office Excel PivotTables Free-Form (CUBE functions) SharePoint Server Excel Services SQL Server Reporting Services SharePoint Server PerformancePoint Services Analytic Chart and Grid reports © 2011 SolidQ

DEMONSTRATIONS Ad hoc Cube Analysis with Excel [Cube Reporting with Reporting Services] © 2011 SolidQ

DEMONSTRATION Developing a UDM © 2011 SolidQ

Enriching the UDM The UDM can be enriched with: Calculations Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Actions Partitions Translations © 2011 SolidQ

DEMONSTRATION Enriching a UDM © 2011 SolidQ

A Message to Developers Unleash the data in your applications to support richer reporting and analysis Reduce the need to develop extensive libraries of reports Produce rich libraries of resources that leverage: The Excel client SharePoint Excel Services Reporting Services SharePoint PerformancePoint Services Promote self-service reporting and analytics © 2011 SolidQ

Next Generation OLAP From Microsoft Microsoft have recently announced a new direction for data models in Analysis Services in SQL Server Code Name “Denali” The UDM will be just one of three approaches to produce a multidimensional model (cube) Named the BI Semantic Model, it will support multidimensional and tabular development approaches Watch the TechEd North America video What's New in Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named "Denali" for SQL Server Analysis Services and PowerPivot http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DBI206 © 2011 SolidQ

Resources http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/analysis-services.aspx Links to technical resources, case studies, news, and reviews “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Step by Step”, by Scott Cameron (Microsoft Press) “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step”, by Bryan Smith et al. (Microsoft Press) Use http://www.microsoft.com/downloads to locate: SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Kit Contains a rich set of presentations, demos, hands-on labs and videos that are perfect for self-paced learning or for conducting your own training © 2011 SolidQ

Thank you! © 2011 SolidQ