MOLAP stands for Multi dimensional Online Analytical Processing. MOLAP is the most used storage type. It is designed to offer maximum query performance to the users. The data and aggregations are stored in a multidimensional format, compressed and optimized for performance. When a cube with MOLAP storage is processed, the data is pulled from the relational database, the aggregations are performed, and the data is stored in the AS database in the form of binary files. The data inside the cube will refresh only when the cube is processed, so latency is high.
Advantages:
- Since the data is stored on the OLAP server in optimized format, queries (even complex calculations) are faster than ROLAP.
- The data is compressed so it takes up less space.
- And because the data is stored on the OLAP server, you don’t need to keep the connection to the relational database.
- Cube browsing is fastest using MOLAP.
Disadvantages:
- This doesn’t support REAL TIME i.e newly inserted data will not be available for analysis untill the cube is processed.
