The illustration shows a three-tier Analysis Services 2005 architecture, where the middle tier is provided by a managed Web application. Analysis Services 2005 implements new protocols and data access APIs that supports cross-platform access to Analysis Services applications and data. As the bottom of the illustration indicates, applications communicate with Analysis Services 2005 by exchanging Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over TCP/IP; messages conform to the XMLA specification, a Web services interface specifically geared to allow client applications to access OLAP and data mining services over the Internet.

Developers can create Web-based applications that access Analysis Services objects (such as cubes) in a variety of ways. The illustration shows an ASP.NET, Web-based application that accesses Analysis Services 2005 objects and data via an API called ADO MD.NET (an extension of Microsoft’s ADO.NET data access provider for accessing multidimensional data sources). As with all other data access APIs that Analysis Services supports, ADO MD.NET ultimately communicates with Analysis Services via XMLA. Clients work with Analysis Services by pointing their Web browsers at the middle tier Web application.

Illustration shows a three-tier Analysis Services 2005 architecture