OLAP Breaks Ground for SQL Server

Microsoft’s 1998 entry into the market for online analytic processing (OLAP) has boosted sales of the SQL Server database management system and provided an opening for that product in Oracle and IBM shops. To exploit this opening, however, Microsoft will have to convince developers of packaged analysis software to build on its OLAP platform, and create a bigger base of OLAP-savvy consultants and solution providers.

OLAP is a database-related technology for analyzing historical data archived from a company’s operational information systems, and it falls under the more general heading of “business intelligence.” (For a description of OLAP and a definition of terms, see the sidebar “What is OLAP?“.) OLAP enables users making business decisions to condense huge volumes of data down to charts and reports that can help spot trends and answer business questions such as “Who is our most effective salesperson?” and “How effective was our Internet ad campaign?”