Editing Online analytical processing (section)

==== Performance of ROLAP ====
In the OLAP industry ROLAP is usually perceived as being able to scale for large data volumes but suffering from slower query performance as opposed to [[#Multidimensional_OLAP_.28MOLAP.29|MOLAP]]. The {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040602192842/http://www.olapreport.com/survey.htm OLAP Survey]}}, the largest independent survey across all major OLAP products, being conducted for 6 years (2001 to 2006) have consistently found that companies using ROLAP report slower performance than those using MOLAP even when data volumes were taken into consideration.

However, as with any survey there are a number of subtle issues that must be taken into account when interpreting the results.
* The survey shows that ROLAP tools have 7 times more users than [[#Multidimensional_OLAP_.28MOLAP.29|MOLAP]] tools within each company. Systems with more users will tend to suffer more performance problems at peak usage times.
* There is also a question about complexity of the model, measured both in number of dimensions and richness of calculations. The survey does not offer a good way to control for these variations in the data being analyzed.