SAS Joins XML For Analysis Effort

SAS Institute Microsoft Hyperion Solutions

Microsoft and Hyperion last spring launched what they characterize as an effort to devise an open standards-based messaging interface for both OLAP and data mining. "The goal is to standardize data access interaction over the Web between the client and the database provider. ... We want to make sure everyone out there building queries or handling OLAP and data mining is doing it in a standard way," said Ragnar Edholm, director of strategy at Hyperion, Sunnyvale, Calif.

The companies said they plan to submit their specification to the appropriate standards body but did not specify which one. Microsoft and Hyperion also said other industry giants, including Microsoft rivals IBM and Oracle, had been invited to participate in the council but had declined. Other companies aboard include Alphablox, Applix, Brio Software, Lawson Software, MicroStrategy and SPSS.

Several Oracle executives said they had not seen nor had they heard of any such invitation. IBM did not return calls for comment.

Oracle also said it has no interest in this particular effort. "This is Microsoft's attempt to extend its existing proprietary MDX APIs," said Robert Shimp, vice president of database marketing at Oracle. MDX is Microsoft's language for accessing Microsoft analysis services.

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"They've wrapped a little bit of SOAP around it, but for all intents and purposes this is MDX. This is a non news event in our opinion. [They're pushing the same old interfaces. There's no real value here for customers looking for an open-systems OLAP interface," Shimp said.

Oracle supports the J-OLAP interface on the Java side of the equation, as does Hyperion. Oracle plans to support J-OLAP for multi-dimensional and relational data types, Shimp said.

Hyperion's involvement in what appears to be a Microsoft-led effort raised some eyebrows. IBM bundles Hyperion's OLAP technology with DB2.

Bud Endress, Oracle's OLAP director of product management, said third parties should examine Microsoft's leadership of this effort. "If XML for Analysis is being proposed by Microsoft, the owner of MDX, you know it will be an absolute perfect fit for MDX ... whether it fits in with other data sources will no doubt be an afterthought," he said.

Kevin Payne, director of SAS' Microsoft Partner Program, said the evolution of standards for OLAP and data mining is critical. "OLAP is becoming more mainstream as is data mining across the industry. ... It's starting to come out of the niche pockets it's been in. We need to make it easier to get value without necessarily knowing how to program or even knowing where the data is."