We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
EasyTechJunkie
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Software

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

What is OLAP?

By David White
Updated: May 16, 2024

One of the effects of business growth is a mountain of data that has to be manufactured, stored, tracked, and interpreted. A growing business needs sophisticated methods of data processing. One of the ways that businesses do this is to use OLAP.

OLAP stands for On Line Analytical Processing, a series of protocols used mainly for business reporting. Using OLAP, businesses can analyze data in all manner of different ways, including budgeting, planning, simulation, data warehouse reporting, and trend analysis. A main component of OLAP is its ability to make multidimensional calculations, allowing a wide and lightning-fast array of possibilities. In addition, the bigger the business, the bigger its business reporting needs. Multidimensional calculations enable a large business to complete in seconds what it otherwise would have waited a handful of minutes to receive.

One main benefit of OLAP is consistency of calculations. No matter how fast data is processed through OLAP software or servers, the reporting that results is presented in a consistent presentation, so executives always know what to look for where. This is especially helpful when comparing information from previous reports to information contained in new ones and projected future ones. "What if" scenarios are some of the most popular uses of OLAP software and are made eminently more possible by multidimensional processing.

Another benefit of multidimensional data presentation is that it allows a manager to pull down data from an OLAP database in broad or specific terms. In other words, reporting can be as simple as comparing a few lines of data in one column of a spreadsheet or as complex as viewing all aspects of a mountain of data. Also, multidimensional presentation can create an understanding of relationships not previously realized. All of this, of course, can be done in the blink of an eye.

Producers of OLAP software are familiar, including Oracle, IBM, and Hyperion Solutions. Oracle, which has a reputation for being different, refers to OLAP software as Business Intelligence. IBM and Hyperion Solutions, wishing to remain consistent with industry standards, call their software OLAP.

EasyTechJunkie is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
See our Editorial Process Share Feedback

Related Articles

Discussion Comments
By everetra — On May 07, 2011

@Mammmood – OLTP deals with the back-end (databases) and OLAP deals with the front-end. That’s an over-simplification, I suppose, but that’s what it boils down to. If you’re an analyst you’ll be working with OLAP. If you’re a DBA, you’ll be dealing with OLTP.

By Mammmood — On May 05, 2011

What is the difference between OLTP vs OLAP? I get the two confused.

By nony — On May 03, 2011

@ allenJo - Multidimensional OLAP is amazing! I use it too where I work. It took me awhile to get used to using SQL to create the multidimensional views of the data. We use Oracle 10g for the back-end but Microsoft has their own product too I believe.

By allenJo — On Apr 30, 2011

This is a good birds-eye view of the subject. I’m not an expert, but I did have to do some reporting for the executives at my old company. We had two days of training in business intelligence OLAP software. It was some pretty impressive stuff. I was able to use cubes, metrics, graphs and other visual graphics that really blew away the big guns at corporate. I wasn’t directly responsible for OLAP reporting, but was one of five users in our department.

I.T. managed the data warehousing end of the OLAP system. I think they were using Oracle at the time. I was just involved in the OLAP analysis and had to deliver the ad hoc reports to the executives.

Share
https://www.easytechjunkie.com/what-is-olap.htm
EasyTechJunkie, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

EasyTechJunkie, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.