Book Image

Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development

Book Image

Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development

Overview of this book

Analysis Services have been the number one OLAP engine for years. With the increased focus on business intelligence solutions, there is a shortage of professionals in this area. Start your journey into becoming a BI developer using the popular tools included in every SQL Server installation. Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development teaches you through clear step-by-step exercises to create business intelligence solutions using Analysis Services. The knowledge gained through these practical examples can immediately be applied to your real-world problems. Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development begins with an introduction to business intelligence and Analysis Services, the world's most-used cube engine. Guiding you through easy-to-understand examples to become a cube developer. Learn how to create a cube including all the advanced features such as KPIs, calculated measures, and time intelligence. Security and performance tuning will also be explored. You will learn how to perform and automate core tasks like deployment and processing. The main focus is on multidimensional cubes, but the creation of in-memory models will also be covered. You will learn everything you need to get started with cube development using SQL Server 2012.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Choosing the deployment mode


As you understand, the choice you make about the deployment mode is very important, it is a choice that you make during installation of the server.

So what determines the right model for you? From a user perspective, the models look the same; the user can use both of them from any of the user tools that can connect to Analysis Services. The difference between the models is mainly something that the developer gets exposed to. As you saw in the architectural diagram previously, there are some differences on the languages that you use when developing the logic and the queries.

In the multidimensional world, you use a language called MDX (Multidimensional Expressions) to query the model and to write the business logic. MDX is a hard language to learn but it is extremely powerful when you really master it.

Tip

More information on how to use MDX to query your cube will be covered in Chapter 5, QueringYour Cube, in this book.

In the tabular world, on the other hand, you...