> And, comparing columnar stores to OLAP cubes is like comparing apples to oranges. The former is a storage format and the latter is an analytical pattern. Mode

> And, comparing columnar stores to OLAP cubes is like comparing apples to oranges. The former is a storage format and the latter is an analytical pattern. Modern OLAP cube technology like Kylin/Kyligence stores cubes in columnar stores anyway. This is mistaken. I went back to read most of the academic literature on OLAP cubes while working on this piece (which, unlike vendor marketing, is used with consistency since the early 80s). OLAP cubes or data cubes refer specifically to the data structure that grew out of nested arrays. An OLAP cube may be materialized from a column store, but a column store isn't an OLAP cube. Relevant sources are included at the bottom of the piece.