Making the Decision

Multidimensional vs. Tabular

Dustin Ryan
Data Platform Solution Architect, Microsoft
duryan@microsoft.com
 Amount of Data
Server Resources
Disk Space

4
 Tabular
• In-Memory Technology (x-
Velocity)
• Can Store Large Amounts of
Data
• No Aggregations. Column-
Based Storage.
• Data Compression 10x
Multidimensional
• Pre-Aggregated Data From Disk
• Can Store Very Large Amounts
of Data
• Uses Aggregations to Increase
Query Performance
• Data Compression 3x

5
Scalability

Tabular Model Multidimensional Cube

 Aggregate Data
Detail Data
Cache Results

7
 Tabular
• Generally Speaking Tabular will
Perform Faster
• Tabular Engine Does Not
Require a Great Deal of
Performance Tuning
• Best at Returning Low
Granularity Data
8
Multidimensional
• Pre-Aggregated Data From Disk
• Can Store Very Large Amounts
of Data
• Uses Aggregations to Increase
Query Performance
• Often Faster Than Tabular When
Pulling From Warm Cache
9
 Dimension Design
Calculation Creation
Key Performance Indicators

10
 Tabular Multidimensional
• Much less time to develop • More planning usually required
• Can be created from Power • No upgrade path
Pivot model • Requires dimensional model
• Does not usually require
dimensional model but still
recommended
• Much simpler interface (similar
to Power BI Desktop)

11
Time to Develop

Tabular Model Multidimensional Cube

13
 Requires more training
Requires more planning
Translating existing skills

14
 Tabular
• Uses DAX (Data Analysis Expressions)
for Query Language
• If You Know Excel Formulas Then
DAX Will Be Easy
• Simple Drag and Drop KPI Creation
• Relationships are simple (no
composite keys)
• If you are familiar with modeling in
Power BI Desktop, then your skills
will translate
15
Multidimensional
• Uses MDX (Multi-Dimensional
Expressions) for Query Language
• Difficult to Learn but has Benefits
(Navigating Hierarchies)
• More Complex KPI Creation
• Multiple relationship types
• Many developers have been
designing cubes for a long time
Learning Curve

Tabular Model Multidimensional Cube

17
 After you Choose…
• There is no migration path between the technologies
• Tabular Best on its Own Machine, Not a Good Candidate for
a Shared Service

18
 Consider Tabular…
If You Have a Short Development Timeline
If You are Working with a Plethora of Memory
If Your Have Many Disparate Data Sources
If Users Need to Query Large Amounts of Detail Data

Consider Multidimensional…
If You are Using SQL Server 2008 R2 or Earlier
If Your Data Model cannot fit into memory
If You Have a Complex Data Model
If You Need Multidimensional only features (Actions, Data Mining, Writeback, Translations)

19
 Multidimensional Tabular
Actions Yes No
Aggregations Yes No
Calculated Measures Yes Yes

Custom Assemblies Yes No

Custom Rollups Yes No

Distinct Count Yes Yes (via DAX)
Drillthrough Yes Yes

Hierarchies Yes Yes

Key Performance Yes Yes
Indicators
Linked objects Yes No
Many-to-many Yes Yes (via DAX)
relationships
Parent-child Hierarchies Yes Yes (via DAX)

Partitions Yes Yes

Perspectives Yes Yes
Semi-additive Measures Yes Yes (via DAX)

Translations Yes No
User-defined Hierarchies Yes Yes

Writeback Yes No
20