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 th

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 a data structure. An OLAP cube may be materialized from a column store, but a column store isn't an OLAP cube. The proof of this? Go to any serious columnar database provider and search for the words 'OLAP cube'. You will find that they are careful to say 'OLAP workload', but not 'OLAP cube' — because in the strict definition of the term, an OLAP cube or data cube is an entirely different architecture. Relevant sources are included at the bottom of the piece. endorphone's comment has it right.