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Do you think that multidimensional databases (MDDBs) are hindered by poor scalability?

Question: There seems to be a common perception that multidimensional databases (MDDBs) are hindered by poor scalability. What is your opinion of this assertion today?

Evan Levy's Answer: As time has progressed, there have been significant improvements to every type of technology from flat file storage to multidimensional databases (MDDBs) to relational database technology. The current crop of MDDB vendors have invested heavily in improving the scalability (and functionality) of their products. The vendors have leveraged a number of newer methods and techniques to address data sparcity, storage efficiency and storage management to handle some of the more well- known problems. I've actually seen circumstances where an individual vendor has constructed a single MDDB supporting more than a terabyte!

We typically identify the business requirements and the capacity details associated with a particular system (or application) before determining if the scalability of an MDDB is of concern. Scalability is a relative issue. Identify your current and future capacity needs and then determine if a particular MDDB product can scale to support you needs.

Chuck Kelley's Answer: I think that the issue surrounds the amount of data and the sparsity of the MDDB "cube." My perception is that this is still true, but I know there is a lot of work in this area.


Evan Levy is a partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting Group, a multivendor systems integration and consulting firm. As the partner in charge of Baseline’s largest practice, Levy leads both executives and practitioners in delivering technology solutions that help business users make better decisions. He has led strategic technology implementations at commercial and public sector organizations and advises vendors on their product development and delivery strategies. Levy has been published in a wide array of industry magazines and has lectured on a range of technology delivery experiences at leading conferences and vendor events. He has been a featured speaker at the Marcus Evans Analytical CRM symposium, DCI’s Data Warehousing conference, the CRM Association, DAMA International, the AMA and the Data Warehousing Institute. His current work involves delivering and lecturing extensively on the topic of data integration. You can contact him at evanlevy@baseline-consulting.com.

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