Live Feed OLAP? Is there such a thing?

[GrandMauler]

The company I work for deals with post-analytics... as I'm sure the vast majority of the analytics market does.

We get data that is at least a day old, add it an existing OLAP Cube, then processs... then we look at that cube for analysis.

However, I was recently asked if BI had a real-time, live feed ability.

I wasn't sure what to say, since I hadn't explored that... although it's a very good question.


Does anyone have an answer? Or, better yet, a link?


Thanks in advance.


Grandmauler

 

[RiverGuy]

Here is a pretty good article:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/rtbissas.mspx

 

[GrandMauler]

Thanks, Riverguy.

The article is pretty indept and gives a strategy of sorts to attempt such a thing....

However, I guess I was looking for a short answer or "silver bullet" .

The biggest factor comes down to data staging, which is what I suspected. SSIS does give far more flexibility than previous ETL strategies... but we are still limited by the staging processes required.

Good read, though.!

 

[RiverGuy]

When you say you are limited by the staging process, are you referring to the length of time it takes to complete the ETL process within SSIS? In my experience, the time it takes to stage the data is small compared to the time it takes to load the dimension and fact tables. If this is the issue, and you do not need to redirect errors, try using FastLoad if you are not doing so presently.

 

[MDXer]

Real Time OLAP in most enviroments is not possible. For it to be real time the fact and dimensional data would have to appear in the OLAP system at the time it appears within the transactional system. Typically when people talk real time it is a defined small lag time between transaction and OLAP availability, typically a couple minutes.

To accomplish this you want to process only the essential pieces as part of the ETL process. You would have to handle early arriving facts as part of the fact ETL and full dimension ETL processes on a semi frequent basis.

As for the SSAS layer you want to look at using proactive caching as the storage mode for your cubes. If I remember correctly I believe you have to have Enterprise version for this.

Paul
---------------------------------------
Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck