SSAS Multidimensional, as you have seen in the previous chapter, is a very powerful modeling tool that provides all the features of OLAP cubes. However, working with multidimensional requires a learning curve; you will need to read a book or some articles, or watch online videos to learn how to work with SSAS Multidimensional.

On the other hand, nowadays, the In-Memory engine is a new technology that provides a very fast response to a client's queries. As you learned from the previous chapter, SSAS Multidimensional loads data into a disk-based storage as long as it is much faster than a database engine, but it will be much faster if it is loaded into memory.

Self-Service BI is another reason why SSAS Tabular comes to help. Earlier, Microsoft provided a tabular solution named Excel PowerPivot. Excel PowerPivot is a tabular modeling technology added in Excel, which helps power users to create models based on their requirements, load data into the In-Memory engine, and...