Search
SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
OLAP cubes in Service Manager leverage the existing data warehouse infrastructure to empower end users with self-service business intelligence capabilities.
An OLAP cube is a sophisticated data structure. It transcends the limitations of traditional relational databases by enabling swift data analysis. These cubes excel in aggregating and summarizing vast datasets, while offering searchable access to specific data points. This flexibility allows data to be rolled up, sliced, and diced, accommodating a broad spectrum of queries pertinent to the user’s interests.
Software vendors and IT developers, versed in OLAP cubes, can craft management packs. These packs enable the creation of customizable OLAP cubes built atop the data warehouse infrastructure. Stored within SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), these cubes become focal points for self-service business intelligence tools like Excel and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). They facilitate multi-dimensional data analysis.
Contrastingly, online transaction processing (OLTP) databases are the repositories for everyday business transactions and records. While they are rich in detail, these databases aren’t inherently structured for analysis, making data retrieval a time-intensive task. OLAP databases, however, are specifically designed to extract business intelligence efficiently from these records.
OLAP cubes represent the capstone of a data warehousing solution. Envisioned as multidimensional or hypercubes, these structures in SSAS are crafted using OLAP databases for rapid data analysis. The system’s topology is depicted below.
See more on OLAP vs OLTP.
# History
Stable release: Analysis Services 2016 / December 21, 2010
# Microsoft Analysis Services Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1996-07-01 | Microsoft opens new team to build an OLAP product, codenamed Plato ( permutation of letters from OLAP) |
| 1996-07-15 | Panorama Software delegation meets with Microsoft |
| 1996-10-27 | Microsoft announces acquisition of Panorama Software development team |
| 1998-11 | OLAP Services 7.0 (codename Sphinx) ships |
| 2000-08 | Analysis Services 2000 (codename Shiloh) ships |
| 2001-11 | XML for Analysis Software Development Kit 1.0 ships |
| 2003-04 | ADOMD.NET and XML for Analysis SDK 1.1 ship |
| 2005-10-28 | Analysis Services 2005 (codename Yukon) ships |
| 2008-08-06 | Analysis Services 2008 (codename Katmai) ships |
| 2012-03-06 | Analysis Services 2012 |
| 2014-04-01 | Analysis Services 2014 |
| 2016-06-01 |
Analysis Services 2016 |
| From Microsoft Analysis Services - Wikipedia |
# The latest?
As of 2026-03-26. I’d like to know the latest, too. I was a heavy user for 10 year or more, loved the performanec and simplicity it produced for BI dashboard creation. But the UI based configuration was the bottleneck at some point.
I’m curious if it is still done through the UI today, and how about local vs. cloud setup? On Reddit someone said:
PowerBI/Microsoft Fabric semantic models are SSAS under the hood. You can connect straight to them using SSMS and query with DAX.
Someone corrected:
Those are not multidimensional models they are tabular and support DAX not MDX.
But:
You can run MDX queries against AAS/power bi models which uses the same vertipaq engine. The engine interprets MDX into DAX under the hood but MDX queries runs on these tabular models.
Origin:
References: SAP OLAP
Created