Summary

In this hour, the difference between Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing databases (OLAP) was introduced. Most organizations generally keep their operational data in relational OLTP databases. Increasingly, however, organizations are moving aggregations of their relational data into multidimensional (OLAP) data stores to facilitate high level speed-of-thought analysis of key business issues. The multidimensional nature of OLAP data sources like Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services or Hyperion Essbase permits this rapid analysis of aggregated data.

Crystal Reports 9 provides exciting new OLAP based reporting capabilities that facilitate the presentation of professionally formatted OLAP sourced reports. The OLAP Report Creation Wizard and OLAP Expert enable quick and flexible OLAP grid creation, and the Crystal Reports charting and mapping tools provide a means to visualize the data in meaningful ways.