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Siebel Analytics Server Features

The Siebel Analytics Server is designed to address the issues that arise in a data warehouse environment. A data warehouse environment includes all of the components to build decision support applications—databases, client tools, data extraction and movement tools, detailed procedures, and planning.

Multi-Database Access

Data typically exists in many different places. Instead of moving data to a single database, the Siebel Analytics Server can access multiple databases simultaneously to answer a single query, regardless of whether the databases are from different vendors or what version of database software each runs under. This heterogeneous environment allows the Siebel Analytics Server administrator to set up decision support systems that would traditionally require a great deal of data extraction effort to implement. When the Analytics server accesses heterogeneous databases, any required transformation is handled automatically, such as datatype casting or applying multiple complex functions. The Analytics server can also access XML data sources.

For information about supported databases, see System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Siebel SupportWeb.

Aggregate Navigation

Data warehouses often include precomputed aggregates to improve query performance. However, adding aggregate tables increases the complexity of the query environment, because users need to know that they should query the aggregate tables directly. They need to analyze the meaning of a query and pick the appropriate aggregate tables, which requires them to understand how the tables are set up. The Siebel Analytics Server allows users to see a single view of the data, and if they ask for information that is precomputed in aggregate tables, the server automatically uses those aggregates to retrieve the data.

Query Caching

Aggregate tables and aggregate navigation help speed up warehouse queries that someone thought to precompute. Query caching stores results for queries that users actually run. The Siebel Analytics Server administrator can configure the server to cache query results for use by subsequent queries. The cached results act much like precomputed aggregates in that they can dramatically accelerate query performance. All security attributes remain in force for the cached results, so users can access only the data they are authorized to view. Queries can be scheduled and the results cached to make information instantly accessible. To ensure the information stored in the cache is current with the underlying databases, the Siebel Analytics Server administrator can set up cache purging rules.

Query Speed

Query speed is always an issue. The Siebel Analytics Server features such as query caching, aggregate table navigation, database-specific SQL optimization, connection pooling, parallel query processing, high-performance sorting, and efficient multi-table join technology provide faster query response times, sometimes enabling online analysis where it was not possible before.

Metadata Repositories

Data warehouses typically have many components, each having its own security attributes and complexities. This can add expensive administrative overhead to the data warehouse environment. With the Siebel Analytics Server, all the rules needed for security, data modeling, aggregate navigation, caching, and connectivity is stored in metadata repositories. Each metadata repository can store multiple business models. The Siebel Analytics Server can access multiple repositories.


 Siebel Analytics Server Administration Guide
 Published: 11 March 2004