MicroStrategy Business Objects Cognos comparision

Single Metadata – Object definition is stored in a database (called metadata), How easy is changes to be integrated made from one interface to another.

64 Bit support – 32 bit system can’t address more than 4 GB of system space. All non-Windows OS are available in 64 bit for ages. Windows also got it in June 2005, but BI vendor should be able to support 64 bit OS.

Scalability – Any calculation performed in database is the best and fast and let very small load on the BI architecture. But not all BI vendors let it happen.

Reusable Objects – Make once use zillion times.

Objects Version Control – Ability to have different version of same (schema) objects.

WYSIWYG – Look and feel of what you created and finally how it looks.

Security – Object, User security.

Personalization – Single report but show different output to different users.

Manual fine-tuning SQL – Easily making changes to generated SQL.

Ease of SQL Generation – Make Schema object and system and forget about the right SQL generation.

MS Office integration – Run report directly from Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

(There is some bug with HTML parser on Blogger.com. Please scroll down for the comparison table. Do write into your comments. I'd update/add more information accordingly)

	MicroStrategy	Business Objects	Cognos
Single Metadata	Yes	No	No
64 Bit support	Very Good	Good	Good
Scalability	Excellent	Good	Very Good
Reusable bjects	Excellent	Good	Good
Objects Version Control	Very Bad	Excellent	Very Good
WYSIWYG	Very Good	Very Good	Very Good
Security	Very Good	Good	Very Good
Personalization	Very Good	Good	Bad
Manual fine-tuning SQL	Good	Excellent	Excellent
Ease of SQL generation	Excellent	Very Good	Very Good
MS Office integration	Very Good	Bad	Good
Learning Curve	Bad	Very Good	Very Good
Number of Clients	10000	42000	23000
Number of Employees	2000	NA	3500
Cost of License	$$$$$	$$	$$$
Support Cost	$$$$$	$$$	$$$
Average Pay (USD)##	83000	78000	79000
Job Security	Good	Excellent	Very Good
Cost of License	$$$$$	$$	$$$
Support Cost	$$$$$	$$$	$$$

## - indeed.com

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server query flow

The main components of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server are:

1. Intelligence server bus
2. Intelligent Cubes server
3. Communication layers for the metadata and data warehouse
4. SQL Generation Engine
5. Query Engine
6. Analytical Engine

The query flow below describes the primary functions of each component.

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server query flow

1. The MicroStrategy Intelligence Server receives a report request from any interface.
2. The request is passed to the Intelligence Server bus, which coordinates all the tasks necessary to execute the report.
3. Intelligence Server first checks the cache to see whether the report results are already there. The report results will already be in cache if another user or a schedule previously ran the report. If a cache exists, Intelligence Server skips directly to step 9.
4. If no valid cache exists for the report, the Intelligence Server bus obtains the report definition and application objects from the metadata.
5. The bus sends this information to the SQL Generation Engine. The SQL Generation Engine creates the optimized SQL, specific to the database being used. The SQL passes are then returned to the bus.
6. The bus sends the SQL to the Query Engine. The Query Engine runs the SQL against the data warehouse and the report results are returned to the bus.
7. The Intelligence Server bus invokes the Analytical Engine. Additional calculations are performed as necessary (when the calculation is unavailable in the database being used), and the Analytical Engine formats the results. The results are returned to the Intelligence Server bus.
8. Depending on the analytical complexity of the report, the results might be passed back to the SQL Generation Engine for further processing by the database. Only MicroStrategy can provide this collaborative analysis with the database, resulting in forms of queries that can only be solved by MicroStrategy. In this case, steps 4–6 are repeated until the final report results are obtained. Finally, the formatted results are returned to the client communication layer.
9. The Intelligence Server passes the formatted results back to the client.

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I had this article for around 2+ years in my archives. Most probably this is an internal MicroStrategy document. If you are © owner and want me to pull this down, please post a comment. There is a link to post comment. I come to know about any comment on blog as soon as it happens. If you can help me with the origin/source of this document, please help me. This is the first post on this blog which is not straight from heart, but hope I don't deviate from it.