Author: Andrew Tauro, Performance Architects
By now you have most likely seen a lot of material (including posts on our blog) regarding how Essbase has moved to the cloud as Essbase Cloud Service (ESSCS), which is part of the new Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC). You may still be wondering how the feature sets between the two versions of Essbase compare. The good news is that they compare very favorably.
Essbase Cloud Service offers the next generation of Essbase product functionality. It is deployed on WebLogic Application Server (WAS), with a Java-based Essbase Agent. This improves availability and monitoring capabilities via WAS, with most of the features of the old-school, C-based version of Essbase ported over.
The solutions are very similar, but also differ in some key areas. Similarities include:
- Works with Smart View and other tools that connect to Essbase via the Essbase client toolkit or API, such as Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)
- Supports transparent partitions
- Supports both Block Storage Option (BSO) and Aggregate Storage Option (ASO) (see our blog post on what these options offer for your solution design)
- Uses Location Aliases, Substitution Variables, Calculation Scripts, and load rules
- Loads dimensions, data, or both via flat files or relational tables
- Restricts access via firewall rules, SSL and VPN services
Differences include:
Essbase Cloud (ESSCS), while based on a mature product, has not been out for long. However, the product team has been working on releasing additional capabilities at a steady pace. Due to this, we expect some of these differences to disappear soon. In the very near future, ESSCS will open up Essbase as a solution to more customers, just like on-premise Essbase has been doing for years.