In-database Analytical Systems: Perspective, Trade-offs and Implementation

The significant change, which this paper addresses, is that Spotfire can now run its dimension-free data exploration environment against data held in Teradata, Oracle’s Exadata, SQL Server 2008 and 2012 and in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). Since these engines can comfortably handle data volumes far in excess of that which can be held in memory, it is now possible to use Spotfire’s unsurpassed analytical capabilities against some of the largest data sets in the world. This provides much greater flexibility and also the ability to use the same tool for both classes of data provides some unexpected synergies.