MIS 2502 Extra Credit: Virtual Data Cubes
Virtual data cubes are used in relational databases. A virtual data cube combines multiple data cubes into one logical cube. This combination of dimensions and measures creates a single, virtual cube so that the data can be analyzed between the two data cubes. An example of how you can use a data cube is to correlate two cubes of data in order to calculate the average product sales per website visit. The two cubes the store would use would be one that stores the number of visitors on the website and the other would be the number of products sold. A benefit of a virtual data cube is that it reduces storage space and the time to load data from the database since the values of the data cube are not stored in a database. Another use of a virtual data cube is that it can be used to protect private and sensitive information from any unauthorized users from viewing it. Since a cube can contain both sensitive and non-sensitive information, the non-sensitive information can be seen in a virtual data cube, while the sensitive data is stored in an existing cube so that only authorized users have access to the information.
Virtual data cubes builds on the Dimensional Data Modeling section of our MIS2502 class. The virtual cubes come from data cubes and the use of data mining that we discussed in class which are associated with dimensional modeling. By using data cubes and data mining, they combine two data cubes and then extracts the relevant data to create results that the user is looking for.
Simba Technologies Inc. created a big Multi-Dimentional eXpressions query language to power Kognitio Pablo which is an in memory, MPP database. Kognitio Pablo creates a virtual OLAP cube and by using Simba, the virtual cube can be made in seconds or minutes instead of the usual hours by using traditional database solutions. Kognitio customers can use the OLAP Business Intelligence tool to analyze, query, and describe on their data with no delays.
References:
Rouse, Margaret. “What Is Virtual Cube? – Definition from WhatIs.com.”SearchDataManagement. N.p., Apr. 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.
“Understanding Data Cubes.” Understanding Data Cubes. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.
“Simba Technologies Enables Virtual OLAP Cubes for Big Data with Kognitio Pablo – Simba Technologies.” Simba Technologies. N.p., 06 July 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.