Where does Essbase fit in this

Okay, now for the big question. Where does Essbase fit in with all this data warehouse mumbo jumbo?

Well if you were paying attention a few paragraphs back you would notice that we mentioned that a necessary tool in your enterprise data warehouse toolbox included an OLAP solution. Well, Essbase is it!

Essbase is the perfect multidimensional OLAP database tool to use as your function specific reporting and analysis data mart tool. Consider this, if your data is stored in your relational database data warehouse under the Dimensional Data Model methodology what better tool is there that has the power and capability to perform in the multidimensional arena. Essbase is a natural.

Consider this, with the proper hardware, Essbase is designed to support even the largest cubes with vast numbers of users so scalability is not an issue. Essbase is also the superior real time analysis and reporting tool that performs complex calculations. It can also be updated from the source database, in this case the data warehouse, quickly and effortlessly and depending on the technology you use for your data warehouse, Essbase can also connect directly to the data warehouse database to draw its data.

Knowing all this what other choice is there besides Essbase?