Software Smooths Path to Building OLAP Applications
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Hyperion Solutions Inc. will ship a new tool that enables users to more easily link multidimensional OLAP cubes with relational databases. The Hyperion Integration Server is designed to make online analytical processing applications easier to build, manage and integrate with relational data stored in a variety of data warehouses and packaged applications, officials said.

To perform these tasks, the software creates a metadata catalog related to the information in any relational model, such as a data warehouse or a packaged application from I2 Technologies Inc. or Claris Corp., according to Hyperion officials. The software then stores the metadata in a single place.

In conjunction with Hyperion's Essbase OLAP server, a user can build an OLAP application that includes a multidimensional cube filled with summary information. Integration Server uses the metadata to enable the user to drill down into the data, not just in the cube, but also in the richer data in the relational data store.

Hyperion, of Sunnyvale, Calif., has joined with several partners to knit the various parts of the system together. Informatica Corp. and Sagent Technology Inc. provided the data extraction, transformation and loading. Initially, Integration Server will draw information directly from packaged applications and decision-support tools from I2, Claris and Comshare Inc. It will also draw information from SAP AG and Oracle Corp. applications indirectly with the help of tools from Acta Technology Inc. and Aris Corp., Hyperion officials said.

"It's a very clever idea," said Michael Schiff, an analyst at Current Analysis Inc., in Sterling, Va. "Populating the data warehouse is the hardest part, and they made it a lot easier to do this."

Pricing for Integration Server will be $20,000 for one OLAP server. It runs on Windows NT, Solaris and AIX. For more information, see http://www.hyperion.com