SSAS and Other Traditional OLAP Tools in the Era of Big Data SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is a well-known OLAP engine and data mining tool that numerous companies use for business intelligence analysis. With the development of the mobile Internet and digital economy, data volume is growing exponentially, urging companies to incorporate the data obtained from more channels into analysis and decision-making. In addition, data analysis has become more complex, forcing companies to gain insights into data from more perspectives, in a more fine-grained manner, and even in real time, to drive efficient decision-making. As a result, conventional OLAP technology like SSAS is starting to show its age. Solutions like SSAS cannot load and process massive data sets and have an unacceptably long response time for complex analysis scenarios. With SSAS, expansion involves high hardware requirements and is far from smooth. In addition, SSAS is not a cloud-native solution nor a cost-optimal choice if opened to a wide range of users. Those issues have left many SSAS and legacy OLAP users asking the question, is there an alternative out there that provides the OLAP function, better performance, and lower TCO in the era of big data?
