Integration
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Analysis Services works with other components and programs to ensure enterprise-level robustness.
Integrated Management Console
Analysis Services includes Analysis Manager, a graphical administration tool. This is a snap-in to Microsoft Management Console (MMC). It provides a common framework and user interface for defining, accessing, and managing Analysis servers and databases. You can use multiple snap-in components in MMC; for example, you can install SQL Server Enterprise Manager and other snap-in components along with Analysis Manager.
Integrated Security
Cube and data mining model access is based on Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 or Windows® 2000 security, providing integration with SQL Server 2000 or earlier by way of operating system-level user account and group definitions.
OLE DB and ODBC Data Sources
A variety of OLE DB and ODBC data sources can be used, such as Oracle versions 7.3 and 8.0. You can use multiple sources at the same time.
Data Transformation Services
Using the Data Transformation Services (DTS) portion of SQL Server Enterprise Manager, you can create packages that process cubes and data mining models and run prediction queries based on mining models. These packages can be scheduled to execute automatically.
Meta Data Services
You can use SQL Server 2000 Meta Data Services to store Analysis Services meta data. Meta Data Services provides a store for object definitions and a platform for deploying meta data.
Functions from Excel and Visual Basic for Applications
In Multidimensional Expressions (MDX), you can include many functions in the Microsoft Excel worksheet library, which is automatically registered if installed on the computer with Analysis Services. You can also include many functions in the Microsoft Visual Basic® for Applications Expression Services library, which is included with Analysis Services and automatically registered.
Server-Side Cache
User queries, meta data, and data are stored in the Analysis server cache. Cached query definitions and meta data make it possible to answer new queries by calculating answers from cached data rather than retrieving data from the disk.
Client-Side Cache
Client applications connect to the Analysis server through the client-based PivotTable® Service component. Because PivotTable Service receives meta data with data from the server in response to a query, it can often use data in the client cache to calculate the answer to subsequent queries without sending a new query to the server. For example, if the client cache contains values for the four quarters of a specific year and the user asks for the total for the same year, PivotTable Service calculates the answer from the cached data.
PivotTable Service shares much of the same functionality as the server, enabling it to bring the server's multidimensional calculation engine, caching features, and query management directly to the client computer. This client/server data management model optimizes performance and minimizes network traffic.