Ways of connecting to an OLAP cube

Working with an OLAP cube requires proper data access management in order to provide a necessary level of security. There are two ways to connect to an OLAP cube: XMLA protocol and Flexmonster Accelerator.

XMLA protocol security

XMLA is a widely known standard for data access. It supports roles – the main mechanism of access rights from SQL Server Analysis Services. Flexmonster Pivot is capable of getting the data via XMLA, and roles are supported as well. For more instructions, refer to the tutorial on using roles from Analysis Services.

Flexmonster Accelerator security

To provide more power for security configuration, our team developed a server-side proxy for connecting to the cubes. This proxy is called Flexmonster Accelerator, and it has much more flexibility, allowing you to tune in the security properly. The Accelerator ships together with Flexmonster Pivot.

If your company needs more advanced data access management than roles, it is recommended to choose Flexmonster Accelerator to get the data. All security aspects of this approach are covered in the sections below:

• The data transfer process
• Data security
• Data access management