So what does Essbase stand for?

Introduction

Before I answer the titular question, maybe a brief introduction as to why I feel myself qualified to blog on Essbase and everything related to this product. I am an IT professional working in the BI field since 1992, and with Essbase specifically since 1995. In this time I have done it all, from being a lowly BI developer on Commander EIS, to running consulting teams and trying to sell BI software. My main focus area is still Essbase (can we still use the Hyperion name?), and all related technologies.

A brief history of Essbase

Essbase is the granddaddy of OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) databases. As was stated in a ComputerWorld article entitled “The Top 10 IT innovations of the last decade” written a couple of years ago, Essbase was recognized as the OLAP technology which put OLAP databases on the BI map. It was introduced to the market around 1993, and has been responsible for thousands of cubes and eons of man-hours in development since then.

So what is this OLAP thing?

Essbase is an OLAP technology. The term “OLAP” was first coined by E.F. Codd in 1993 who defined the 12 laws of OLAP . This defined an entire industry. The core principle of OLAP technologies is multidimensionality, and how to quickly answer multidimensional queries. Essbase is a multidimensional database, which creates a physical cube of data, unlike relational OLAP technologies which depend on a relational database.

Essbase stands for…

To come back to the original question, Essbase stands for Extended Spreadsheet Database. The idea was to simulate thousands of spreadsheets linked by multidimensional relationships in a easy-to-access database.

This blog is the first of ,hopefully, many more on the topic of Essbase, Hyperion, Enterprise Performance Management, and general BI subjects. Let me know if you want me to cover specific topics – what I cannot answer I am sure my Intellient colleagues will be able to handle.