A
Since version 7, Essbase has supported two "storage options" (BSO and ASO) which take advantage of sparsity to minimize the amount of physical memory and disk space required to represent large multidimensional spaces. The Essbase patent describes the original method, which aimed to reduce the amount of physical memory required without increasing the time required to look up closely-related values. With the introduction of alternative storage options, marketing materials called this the Block Storage Option (Essbase BSO), later referred to as Essbase Analytics. (BSO) enables driver-based scenario modeling, forecasting, and predictive analytic applications. Note: To give you our idea of the ideal application of ASO and BSO,: ASO Database: The ASO database is ideal for dynamically built Essbase cubes that are usually Read Only and used for reporting, presentation, and analysis. This type of database would also tend to have a rather large outline where at least one dimension has a significant amount of members. A parts dimension or product dimension comes to mind.Behind this ASO database would be a large BSO parent Essbase database, from which the dynamic ASO databases are built on the fly. BSO Database: The BSO database is ideal for virtually any size cube, but where performance is not necessarily the number one priority. Accuracy and completeness of data would be the main consideration. The BSO database is ideal as the large parent database where users from many different departments can trigger jobs which will dynamically build ASO reporting cubes on an as needed basis. The typical BSO database is ideally suited for financial analysis applications.