Palo is a memory resident multidimensional (

online analytical processing Online analytical processing, or OLAP (), is an approach to answer multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries swiftly in computing. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational databases, repo ...

(OLAP) or multidimensional online analytical processing (

MOLAP Online analytical processing, or OLAP (), is an approach to answer multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries swiftly in computing. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational databases, rep ...

))

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

server and typically used as a

business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical pr ...

tool for controlling and budgeting purposes with

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cel ...

software acting as the user interface. Beyond the multidimensional data concept, Palo enables multiple users to share one centralised data storage (

single version of the truth In computerized business management, single version of the truth (SVOT), is a technical concept describing the data warehousing ideal of having either a single centralised database, or at least a distributed synchronised database, which stores all ...

). This type of

is suitable to handle complex data models for business management and statistics. Apart from multidimensional queries, data can also be written back and consolidated in real-time. To give rapid access to all data, Palo stores them in the memory during run time. The server is available as open-source and

proprietary software Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and int ...

Jedox Jedox is an Enterprise Performance Management software which is used for planning, analytics and reporting in finance and other areas such as sales, human resources and procurement. Its core is a cell-oriented, multi-dimensional in-memory OLAP ...

was founded by Kristian Raue in 2002 and developed by Jedox AG, a company HQed in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

, Germany. The firm currently employs approximately 300 people. Kristian Raue's departure from Jedox was announced in June 2014.

Features

Palo for Excel is an open source plug-in for

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro (comp ...

. There is also an open source plug-in for

OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...

named PalOOCa (discontinued), with Java and web client also available from the JPalo project. Palo can also be integrated into other systems via its client libraries for

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. ...

, C/

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

, or

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

. It is fairly easy to communicate with Palo OLAP Server, since it uses representational state transfer (REST). Starting in October 2008, Palo supports

XML for Analysis XML for Analysis (XMLA) is an industry standard for data access in analytical systems, such as online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining. XMLA is based on other industry standards such as XML, SOAP and HTTP. XMLA is maintained by XMLA Cou ...

and

MultiDimensional eXpressions Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) is a query language for online analytical processing (OLAP) using a database management system. Much like SQL, it is a query language for OLAP cubes. It is also a calculation language, with syntax similar to sp ...

(MDX) APIs for connectivity, and

OLE DB for OLAP OLE DB for OLAP (Object Linking and Embedding Database for Online Analytical Processing abbreviated ODBO) is a Microsoft published specification and an industry standard for multi-dimensional data processing. ODBO is the standard application prog ...

interface which allows standard Excel pivot tables to serve as a client tool. Starting September 2011, Palo support
SDX
dialect of

LINQ Language Integrated Query (LINQ, pronounced "link") is a Microsoft .NET Framework component that adds native data querying capabilities to .NET languages, originally released as a major part of .NET Framework 3.5 in 2007. LINQ extends the langu ...

. Palo also provides a web-based spreadsheet interface called Palo Web.Palo Web

Architecture

Palo Suite is a tightly integrated framework consisting of: Palo MOLAP Server, Palo ETL Server, Palo Web (Palo Spreadsheet - Connection, User, ETL, File and Report Manager), Palo for Excel, Palo Supervision Server and the Palo Client Libraries. The Data in Palo database is stored as a cube in the Palo MOLAP server. The Palo Excel Add-In component is used as a service to communicate between the Excel and the Palo MOLAP Server.

Licensing

Jedox announced only commercial licensing is available since 5.1 version (2015).

References

Additional sources

* Bernd Held, Hartmut Erb: ''Advanced Controlling mit Excel. Unternehmenssteuerung mit OLAP und PALO, m. CD-ROM.'', Franzis, Poing 2006, (in German) * Stefan Müller, Leif Mergener: ''Business Intelligence im Vertrieb auf Basis von Open-Source-Lösungen.'' In: Ronald Gleich, Andreas Klein (Hrsg.): Marketing- und Vertriebs-Controlling (Der Controlling-Berater Bd. 11). Haufe-Lexware, Freiburg 2010, . (in German)
Palo Documentation
- Documentation to Palo (pdf) in the download section of the website
Online Knowledgebase
Free Online Knowledgebase with full-text search and export as PDF functionality
Feature Voting Tool
Feedback/Feature Voting Tool
''b-eye network'' article
- Open Source OLAP in the Retail Environment. John Hobson, February 2008

External links