Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services has been designed from the ground up to help minimize the most significant ownership costs of building and maintaining OLAP applications. OLAP Services consists of both server and client (middle-tier) software components.
On the server side, OLAP Services OLAP server operates as a Microsoft Windows NT service and provides the core computational functionality. Programmatic access to administrative functions in the OLAP server is through an object model called Decision Support Objects (DSO), which is documented by Microsoft.
OLAP Manager, the built-in administrative user interface for OLAP Services, also is developed on DSO and provides a rich user experience without the need for programming. OLAP Manager, which can execute on a computer separate from the OLAP server, allows the database administrator to design OLAP data models, access information in RDBMS stores, design aggregations, and populate OLAP data stores, among other functions. The OLAP metadata definitions are stored in a private repository, but can be exported to Repository with the OLAP Open Information Model (OIM) by using a simple utility.
OLAP Services can access source data in any supported OLE DB data provider, which includes not only SQL Server but also a large number of desktop and server databases, including Microsoft Access, Microsoft FoxPro, Oracle, Sybase, and Informix. Any database source that provides an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface is also accessible through a facility in OLE DB that wraps ODBC drivers and exposes them as if they were native OLE DB interfaces. These data sources can also reside on platforms other than the Windows NT operating system, for example, UNIX or mainframe systems and databases like IBM DB2 or Teradata. Through the multiplatform capabilities of OLE DB, data can be accessed from a wide variety of systems as if they were local to the OLAP Services server.
On the client side, OLAP Services includes a component called PivotTable Service. PivotTable Service is the facility that connects OLAP client applications to the OLAP Services server. All access to data managed by OLAP Services, by custom programs or client tools, is through the OLE DB for OLAP interface provided by PivotTable Service.
Both the client and server components of OLAP Services are extensible in functionality. Customer sites, independent software vendors (ISVs), and consultants all can extend the calculation, data management, or application functionality using the well-documented features in DSO. With this built-in extensibility, customers can be assured that OLAP Services will have the functionality necessary to address their application needs.