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IBM boosts OLAP analysis, mining

(May 1, 2002) IBM tomorrow will unveil a new version of its DB2 OLAP Server system that insiders say incorporates both data mining and data analysis technology. Officials say the new technology will allow managers to gather real-time detailed responses to complex queries and then immediately analyze trends based on the same data.

The new Version 8.1 of the OLAP Server, which is based on the Essbase technology licensed from Hyperion Solutions Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., combines what IBM calls a Hybrid Analysis technology with upgraded data mining functionality.

IBM describes the Hybrid Analysis technology as a blend of relational and multidimensional OLAP, which can deliver a mix of functionality to find detailed answers to queries. It then provides an analysis based on very large volumes of data, which is said to boost performance over the previous version by 20% to 60%.

The new version of the OLAP Server, which includes Version 7.2 of IBM's DB2 database, is currently shipping.