Database management system having a data aggregation module integrated therein

Abstract

An improved method of and apparatus for aggregating data including a high-performance aggregation module (comprising a scalable multi-dimensional database (MDDB)) that is integrated into a database management system (DBMS). The DBMS includes a relational part comprising a relational datastore storing data in tables and support mechanisms. Bi-directional data flow occurs between the relational part and the integrated aggregation module whereby data stored in the relational datastore in loaded into the aggregation module and aggregated data stored in the MDDB of the aggregation module is communicated to the relational part. The improved DBMS can be used to realize achieving a significant increase in system performance (e.g. deceased access/search time), user flexibility and ease of use. The improved DBMS system of the present invention can be used to realize an improved Data Warehouse for supporting on-line analytical processing (OLAP) operations or to realize an improved informational database system, operational database system, or the like.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A database management system (DBMS) comprising: 
 a relational part comprising a relational datastore storing data in tables and support mechanisms; and    an integrated aggregation module, operatively coupled to the relational datastore, for aggregating the data stored in the tables of the relational datastore and storing the resultant aggregated data in a non-relational datastore;    wherein bi-directional data flow occurs between the relational part and the integrated aggregation module whereby data stored in the relational datastore in loaded into the aggregation module and aggregated data stored in the non-relational datastore of the aggregation module is communicated to the relational part.    
     
     
         2 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , for use as a relational database management system (RDBMS) wherein the relational datastore stores fact data.  
     
     
         3 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , wherein the non-relational datastore comprises a multi-dimensional database.  
     
     
         4 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , wherein user operations in querying the non-relational datastore is no different than querying the relational datastore.  
     
     
         5 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , wherein said aggregation module includes a data loading mechanism for loading data from the relational datastore, an aggregation engine for aggregating the data loaded from the relational datastore, and a storage handler for storing in the non-relational datastore the data loaded from the relational datastore and the aggregated data generated by the aggregation engine.  
     
     
         6 . The DBMS of  claim 5 , wherein said aggregation module includes control logic that, upon determining that the non-relational datastore does not contain data required to service a given query, controls the aggregation engine to generate aggregated data required to service the given query and controls the aggregation module to return the aggregated data for communication to the requester.  
     
     
         7 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , further comprising OLAP analysis logic integral to the DBMS.  
     
     
         8 . The DBMS of  claim 7 , further comprising OLAP presentation logic integral to the DBMS.  
     
     
         9 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , for use as an enterprise wide data warehouse that interfaces to a plurality of information technology systems.  
     
     
         10 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , for use as a database store in an informational database system.  
     
     
         11 . The DBMS of  claim 10 , wherein the informational database system requires aggregation and calculations on basic detailed data.  
     
     
         12 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , for use as a database store in an operational database system.  
     
     
         13 . The DBMS of  claim 12 , wherein the operational database system is part of one of the following systems: a Customer Relations Management System, an Enterprise Resource Planning System, a Customer Data Record Database System.  
     
     
         14 . The DBMS of  claim 12 , wherein the user operations in querying the relational datastore and non-relational datastore generate natural language queries communicated from a client machine.  
     
     
         15 . The DBMS of  claim 14 , wherein said client machine comprises a web-enabled browser to generate said natural language queries.  
     
     
         16 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , wherein the relational part of the DBMS and the aggregation module communicate over a standard interface.  
     
     
         17 . The DBMS of  claim 16 , wherein the standard interface comprises one of: OLDB, OLE-DB, ODBC, SQL, and JDBC.  
     
     
         18 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , for use as an object database management system (ODBMS).  
     
     
         19 . The DBMS of  claim 1 , for use as an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS).