Multidimensional or Relational? How to Organize an On-Line Analytical Processing Database

In the past few years, the number of On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications increased quickly. These applications use two significantly different database structures: multidimensional and table-based. One can show that the traditional model of relational databases cannot make difference between these two structures. Another model is necessary to make the most important differences visible. One of these differences is the speed of the system. It can be proven, under some reasonable conditions, that the multidimensional database organization results in shorter response times.