New developments on the Panorama/Google front: users of Panorama’s pivot table for Google docs will be able to connect direct to Analysis Services via http (if they want to pay) and also upload local cube files and query them (which will be free). Here’s the announcement:
http://www.panorama.com/news/news/archives/2008/apr-17-2008.html
This comes hot on the heels of Google’s Salesforce link-up:
http://blogs.salesforce.com/blogs/2008/04/announcing-sale.html
They’re slowly joining the dots…
I was asked not to talk about this until the press release went out, but then I found that Nigel Pendse has already beaten me to it and done an excellent job of summing everything up:
http://www.olapreport.com/Comment_Panorama_Google.htm
I agree with Nigel that I don’t think there will be many people at the moment who will be willing to expose their SSAS server via http. However there are a small number of companies who provide hosted SSAS solutions and this I think will become a much more popular option over the coming years. I do think, though, that the local cube option has some very interesting possibilities especially because it’s free. I can imagine it would be a great way of distributing data to disconnected employees like salespeople, or to partners, for small companies on a tight budget. Tim Peterson must be pleased – this should cause a resurgence of interest in local cubes.
