Local Cubes in a Business Intelligence Strategy

If you are in business today,
    you probably have a lot of data.

If you have a lot of data,
    you need business intelligence tools to turn your data into knowledge.

If you need business intelligence,
    you should consider the powerful tools provided by
        Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services.

If you are using Microsoft Analysis Services,
    you should take advantage of the built-in local cube technology
        to enable a wider distribution of your business intelligence data.

If you are using local cubes,
    you can easily and efficiently maintain a set of up-to-date local cubes
        by using CubeSlice.

Microsoft has provided the ability to create local cube files that can be used to browse multidimensional data when a user is not connected to an Analysis (OLAP) Server. The local cube was introduced with the release of SQL Server 7.0, and its capabilities were significantly enhanced in both SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

A local cube file can be loaded on a laptop, so that a user can browse multidimensional data while disconnected from the network. A local cube can be e-mailed to a remote user who does not have access to the Analysis Server. Local cubes can be downloaded from web sites, so that remote users can be given access to multidimensional data. Different local cubes can be created and distributed to different users, with each cube containing only the information the person is authorized to see.

Local cubes can be created that have a subset of the Analysis Server cube's data. This can greatly increase convenience and browsing speed for the user. When a cube only contains the subset of information that the user wants to use, they can browse more quickly and more efficiently.

 A local cube can be created programmatically from an Analysis Services cube or from a relational database. The ability to create local cubes interactively has been provided in Microsoft Excel.

Local cube files can be viewed in Microsoft Excel and by most applications that provide access to OLAP data. Browsing data in a local cube file is just like browsing data in an Analysis Server cube.