Arbor Software Corp will tomorrow a launch a suite of three programs enabling users of Essbase to automate application development and thereby integrate its OLAP server more tightly into their overall data warehousing strategy. The three elements of the suite are named OLAP Architect, OLAP Builder and OLAP Integration Server, collectively making it possible to create and manage standard analytic applications, as well as streamlining the process whereby on-demand ones are generated. The first program is a 32-bit graphic tool that defines the metadata (the dimensions, hierarchies and business logic of the query) for data held in a relational source. The second, another 32-bit graphic tool, takes that metadata and creates a meta-outline, a definition of what data you want to retrieve and build into a cube in Essbase. Then the third generates the SQL code, builds the physical structure for the data and loads it. A source close to the company said the suite is designed to work with cleansed data sources or a relational base itself, which pre-supposes cleansed material. Thus it includes only a rudimentary data cleansing facility of its own, not constituting fully-fledged data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL). The importance of this suite of products is, firstly, that it increases Essbase’s integration into a company’s data warehouse as a whole and automates functions, such as SQL generation, which have hitherto been carried out manually. Secondly, it enhances Arbor’s offering for the growing market in sophisticated, ad hoc queries.
