Chapter 1. A Data Analysis Foundation

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services is advertised as a multidimensional database server. The term multidimensional conjures up images of Albert Einstein’s curved space-time, parallel universes, and mathematical formulas that make solving for integrals sound soothingly simple. And yet the buzz is that Analysis Services is supposed to make analyzing huge amounts of data fast, flexible, and easy.

In H. G. Wells’ story The Time Machine, life was easy and beautiful for the city dwellers of the future because all the hard and dirty work was being done by mysterious beings hidden underground (who, incidentally, harvested the simpleminded surface people for food). One might fear that in a similar way Analysis Services makes it easy for an analyst to manipulate data because it pushes complex and confusing administrative tasks onto the less visible database administrator.

The real story is neither as dramatic nor as frightening as the H. G. Wells story. The bottom line is that calling a database multidimensional is really a bit of a lie. It’s a snazzy term, but when applied to databases it has nothing in common with the multidimensional behavior of particles accelerating near the speed of light or even with the multidimensional aspects of Alice’s adventures down the rabbit hole. This chapter will help you understand what multidimensionality really means in a database context and how Analysis Services can help simplify your data analysis needs.