Archive for 2. June 2008

Buzzword: “OLAP” & “OLTP”

2. June 2008 by Rick Abbott.

On-line Analytical Processing, or OLAP, is a not used much anymore, probably for the same reasons that you don’t hear “data warehouse” that much.  The term in it’s broadest sense is meant to be the yin to OLTP’s (On-line Transaction Processing) yang.   Ten years ago it was insightful to distinguish between transaction and analytical processing, and it was sufficient to lump processing into those two broad categories.  Now, of course, not only have the distinctions blurred but the two processing types have become much more granular.

Within the business intelligence community, OLAP has taken on a more narrow definition, one centered around structuring data to optimize reporting queries.  The structure centers around a cube, either physically or conceptually.  There are several flavors:

  • MOLAP (Multi-dimensional On-line Analytical Processing) - just another term for OLAP
  • ROLAP (Relational On-line Analytical Processing) - structuring relational tables to mimic a cube or in-memory analytical structure
  • HOLAP (Hybrid On-line Analytical Processing) - a combination of MOLAP & ROLAP

So when you do hear the term OLAP now, it’s usually in reference to a very niche reporting tool that stores data in a multidimensional in-memory structure (either read from a database or files) and supports random walking through the data.

Posted in Industry Buzzwords | 1 Comment »

Widgets

2. June 2008 by Rick Abbott.

I’m new to the widget world.  As part of my build-out of www.360degreevendor.com, I’ve been experimenting with the Clearspring widget set.  I’ve tested out both the LaunchPad options: In-Widget and On-Page methods.  The In-Widget seems to be a better fit for my site, as I have a number of areas within the home page that I’d like to share, such as the vendor search box.  Although I can see putting an On-Page button on the home page to allow people to share the entire site.

I floated a question about  Clearspring on the LinkedIn Q&A board, and received some good feedback.  The majority of the respondents recommended using WidgetBox, so I think I’ll do a trial with both and see which works out best.  I don’t think this is necessarily an either/or situation, so I might end up using both depending on their relative strengths.

Posted in Technical Focus, Vendors | No Comments »

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