SQL Server Analysis Services ( SSAS ) - Introduction

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) delivers both online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining functionality for business intelligence applications. Analysis Services supports OLAP by letting the user design, create, and manage multidimensional structures that contain data aggregated from other data sources, such as relational databases. For data mining applications, Analysis Services lets the user design, create, and visualize data mining models, constructed from other data sources by using a variety of industry-standard data mining algorithms.