On March 1, 2007, a technology conference “Oracle Business Intelligence. Data warehouses, analytical systems”. The central event at the conference was the announcement of the release of Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 10g Release 3 (Oracle Business Intelligence Suite EE), a new version of a multifunctional, standards-based set of infrastructure and business analysis tools.
Since the product seemed to me quite curious, and there was no information about it in the “Network Solutions” yet, I offer you a detailed material on this topic.
The Oracle Suite for Business Analytics Enterprise Edition includes a set of products that provide tools for performing arbitrary queries and analysis, building OLAP analysis, interactive dashboards, tools for generating reports, alerts and proactive analytics, tools for working without connecting to a server, as well as other tools.
Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition is built on the following key principles:
A single view of all the information of the enterprise. In almost all organizations, information is stored in various databases and corporate applications. Oracle BI Suite IT allows organizations to create a unified and logical representation of all corporate information contained in various data warehouses, multidimensional sources and operational systems.
A unified model for presenting information. Its Oracle BI Suite allows an organization to describe complex information sources and in the form of a simple, understandable, logical business model. It provides tools for describing tables, derived indicators and building OLAP cubes in business terminology, allowing the user to abstract from the physical data structure.
Access to information for everyone. Oracle BI Suite IT gives business users the opportunity to obtain the required information without the need to involve specialist analysts. The user can have access to analytical data from various devices and through many channels of access to information.
Access to information in real time. When using technologies such as continuous ETL processes, business activity monitoring (business activity monitoring), business event management and access to data in information systems directly, Oracle’s BI suite allows users to combine historical data with real-time data in order to get the most complete information about the current state of the business.
Managed decision-making process. Oracle provides business and managed Analytics capabilities Interactive dashboards provide business users with fast and efficient navigation to identify and resolve problems and take action depending on the type of event. “Oracle BI Suite”, which are focused only on creating reports. Unified infrastructure. Oracle BI Suite also has unified data access mechanisms; a single analytical and computing infrastructure; metadata management mechanisms; a single semantic business model; a unified security system model and user privileges; as well as common administration tools.
Ready-made analytical solutions. Oracle BI Suite IT allows you to make the development of analytical applications (Analytical applications) fast and easy with the help of a package of ready-made analytical applications.
Connection options in “hot” mode. Oracle Bi Suite has the means to connect IT in the “hot” mode to any existing data sources; core business applications; any security infrastructure; as well as to existing analytical tools, which allows organizations to implement the Oracle Suite kit without the need to modify the existing infrastructure.
Oracle BI Server
HER Oracle BI Suite is HER analytical server (Oracle BI Server). It is his task to collect data from heterogeneous sources and present it in the form of a logical data schema independent of the physical data structure in the source. It is this logical scheme that Oracle BI clients see.
Simplistically, the server performs two main functions:
– parsing and compiling incoming requests into executable code;
– execution of this code.
Oracle Bi Server clients send a simplified logical to SQL query, which is converted into a combination by the server of queries on the “present” to SQL, sent to various DBMS data sources of intermediate and code that is executed inside the Oracle BI server execution engine. Also in Oracle, the BI server has the necessary server infrastructure for managing sessions and requests, cancellations, logging, monitoring, and other administrative server functions.
A variety of things can act as data sources – Oracle databases and Microsoft SQL servers, DB2, ODBC data sources, and text and XML files, Excel tables and tables, OLAP tables, etc.
Separately, we should mention the Oracle BI Server execution system. This is a modern parallel execution system for SQL queries, extended by analytical operators. The main functions of the system include:
– forwarding of functions – the analytical server forwards “native” SQL queries to the DBMS, to execute aggregation pass directives, as well as directives for different types of filters in the source database;
– parallel execution of requests – the server allows parallel formation and execution of requests, which can even be carried out on different machines. Cancellation of requests will also be implemented in parallel;
– optimization of sorting – the analytical sorting server has the possibility of parallel sorting, which is necessary if, for example, the sorting required for a complete external connection cannot be performed in the DBMS;
– merge – Oracle BI server can connect two or more result sets from multiple parallel queries;
– ranking and filtering of records.
Oracle BI Server defines and stores all elements of analytical calculations in the form of metadata in a central repository. This makes it possible to provide users with a centralized, consistent system for describing indicators. In case of changing the definition of the indicator, it is necessary to make corrections only in one place, after which the new definition will be applied everywhere. In contrast, when using products that record these definitions in the description of specific reports, an indicator defined in one report may have the same name, but a different definition in another report – hence the likelihood of an incorrect definition in the reports. When changing definitions in reports, corrections will have to be made to each reporting document, which makes the current maintenance of the system very expensive. The analytical server is visible to other applications as an ODBC 2.0 data source. as if it is a database compatible with the standard, ODBC, Oracle Oracle Analytics, as if it is a database.
Oracle Analytics Web Server
It creates a user interface for tools used to visualize data from Oracle BI Server, such as Oracle Answers and Interactive Dashboards. as Oracle BI Server as an ODBC client and performs a number of important functions:
– creates a user interface;
– responds to the user’s choice, generates logical and SQL queries for the Oracle BI-server DBMS and tracks logical operators in SQL and their results; – records user-generated descriptions of how data should be presented and interacts with the charting system to generate them;
– rotates and aggregates data after the results are generated by the analytical server.
When a user session starts, Oracle and Web Analytics presents the user’s identification information (username/password) to the analytical server, identifies the user, and then requests the Oracle Bi server to provide “databases”, “tables” and “columns” to which the user has access. Such objects are displayed by the user interface in the form of subject areas, folders and columns. Oracle BI Server also provides Oracle Analytics with web metadata, including column properties such as data type, aggregation rules and whether the user can have access to the details of the column data – each of these elements will also affect how the data will be displayed in the user interface.
Oracle Web Analytics provides users with a wide range of features thanks to a 100% clean HTML-based web environment, then for DHTML and JavaScript, and the user does not have to download any client, use software extensions, operating-x-based controls or applets. This allows business users, with minimal training, to perform new types of analysis and create new queries by pointing and selecting with the mouse what they want in the logical model of information that will be displayed in the browser.
Users of answers and panels can personalize their web user interface, including the view, format description, properties of individual charts, tables and pivot tables. Oracle Analytics Web stores these personal definitions in a metadata directory called the web-which is called the web, which is an XML schema. There are browser-based administration tools that allow you to manage this web directory. Administrators can control user access to various dashboards, set user privileges, create and manage groups and roles, change group membership lists, change the name or delete directory folders and saved analysis results, as well as view and manage sessions.
