Analysis Services Features
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Analysis Services is a middle-tier server for online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining. The Analysis Services system includes a server that manages multidimensional cubes of data for analysis and provides rapid client access to cube information. Analysis Services organizes data from a data warehouse into cubes with precalculated aggregation data to provide rapid answers to complex analytical queries. Analysis Services also allows you to create data mining models from both multidimensional (OLAP) and relational data sources. You can apply data mining models to both types of data. PivotTable® Service, the included OLE DB compliant provider, is used by Microsoft Excel and applications from other vendors to retrieve data from the server and present it to the user, or create local data cubes for offline analysis.
Certain features are available only if you install Analysis Services for certain editions of SQL Server 2000. For more information about which editions support which features, see Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2000.
The following table describes the key features of Analysis Services.
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | An extensive user interface with wizards |
| Flexible Data Model | A flexible, robust data model for cube definition and storage |
| Scalability | Scalable architecture that provides a variety of storage scenarios and an automated solution to the |
| Integration | Integration of administration tools, security, data sources, and client/server caching |
| Widely Supported APIs and Open Architecture | Support for custom applications |