All of us at Vlamis Software recently got a chance to get some in-depth understanding of Essbase.  It was very interesting.  I had always had a healthy respect for the technology, but didn’t know a lot about the underpinnings of it.  Now, after spending several in-depth hands-on days with several of the top Hyperion (now Oracle) people I see that Essbase can be a very compelling choice for OLAP implementations.  Oracle has now two very compelling “options” for OLAP — the Oracle OLAP option to Oracle Database and Essbase.  It would be a very neat story if we could say “for this, you use Oracle OLAP, and for that you use Essbase.”  But the reality is that each has its advantages and each is a very capable multi-dimensional database.  You really can’t go wrong with either one.

Look for further information here in subsequent blog entries and at various conferences (including Collaborate 08 in April, 2008).