Multi-dimensional OLAP (MOLAP)

MOLAP helps the user to "slice and dice" information, providing multi-dimensional analyses of data by putting data in a cube structure.

Most successful MOLAP products use a multi-cube approach in which a series of small, dense, pre-calculated cubes make up a hypercube.

For example, MOLAP is the ideal tool to use if you need to know answers to questions that involve a time-line (day, week, month, year), geographical areas (city, state, country), various product lines or categories and channels (sales people, stores, etc).

In other words, the MOLAP approach will allow you to align and analyse data relating to the number of products sold, by sales person to any number of customers in various industry categories within regions in specific time periods.

MOLAP is also able to align data content with the analyst's own views, helping to eliminate confusion and lower the incidence of erroneous interpretations.

Furthermore, because the data is physically stored in a multi-dimensional hypercube, the speed of these operations became faster and more consistent.

The combination of simplicity and speed are some of the key benefits of MOLAP.