Microsoft Analysis Services
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
Analysis Services 2016 / December 21, 2010
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| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | OLAP, Data Mining |
| License | Microsoft EULA |
| Website | http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc510300.aspx |
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, SSAS, is an online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining tool in Microsoft SQL Server. SSAS is used as a tool by organizations to analyze and make sense of information possibly spread out across multiple databases, or in disparate tables or files. Microsoft has included a number of services in SQL Server related to business intelligence and data warehousing. These services include Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services. Analysis Services includes a group of OLAP and data mining capabilities and comes in two flavors - Multidimensional and Tabular.
In 1996, Microsoft began its foray into the OLAP Server business by acquiring the OLAP software technology from Canada-based Panorama Software. Just over two years later, in 1998, Microsoft released OLAP Services as part of SQL Server 7. OLAP Services supported MOLAP, ROLAP, and HOLAP architectures, and it used OLE DB for OLAP as the client access API and MDX as a query language. It could work in client-server mode or offline mode with local cube files.
In 2000, Microsoft released Analysis Services 2000. It was renamed from "OLAP Services" due to the inclusion of data mining services. Analysis Services 2000 was considered an evolutionary release, since it was built on the same architecture as OLAP Services and was therefore backward compatible with it. Major improvements included more flexibility in dimension design through support of parent child dimensions, changing dimensions, and virtual dimensions. Another feature was a greatly enhanced calculation engine with support for unary operators, custom rollups, and cell calculations. Other features were dimension security, distinct count, connectivity over HTTP, session cubes, grouping levels, and many others.
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