During one of my icCube demo meetings last year, one of the attendants asked if it is possible to migrate from Microsoft Analysis Services to icCube and what could be potential challenges. Well, what do you answer to such a question? … Honestly?
Having quite a bit of in-depth knowledge of both icCube and Analysis Services, I knew it could be done, but I never did it before myself. So, last Autumn, having a couple of days available for research I started the mini-project of migrating the Microsoft’s flag-ship demo model “AdventureWorks” to icCube.
So, can it be done? Can you migrate an Analysis Services model to icCube?
Yes, definitely. It was surprisingly simple. And as a bonus you will get all the additional benefits provided by the icCube platform too. With the most important benefit (for me and my clients):
- With icCube you get an actively maintained and developed business intelligent platform. Something that Analysis Services really has missed over the last couple of years. And that is especially painful if you run into a critical/performance bug.
- With icCube you get a complete all-in-one analytical software package, containing ETL, a builder tool, a server management tool, an admin tool and a dashboard editor & publisher. There is no need for additional (expensive) tools.

(check the connection).
Below a summary comparison points to note on the migration. If you want to learn more about the migration process itself, you can read my other blog post on this topic here.
Migrating AdventureWorks to icCube
There were no challenges for doing the migration, it’s just different ways of doing things. The following table gives a summary:
Table 1. AdventureWorks in Analysis Services vs icCube
Analysis Services | icCube | ||
set-up the data source | to SQL Server database | to SQL Server database | same |
tables & views | tables with SQL expressions | use of views | similar |
dimensions | allows NULL values | does not allow NULL values, assign default value | similar |
snowflake | multi-level on a view | similar | |
discretization bucket count | indexing by range | matter of taste | |
dimension usage | referenced | regular with view | similar |
measures | – | – | same |
calculated measures | scoped functions | using MDX++ functions | similar |
other calculations | 3 minor changes in MDX | same |
As you can derive from this table, you can conclude that there were no real issues in the migration. But, be your own judge. You can check out the result for yourself in icCube, using the migrated “AdventureWorks” model.
This is what you need to experience “AdventureWorks” in icCube:
- a license that contains the backup functionality (under big data features, click self-hosted first). You can ask support for help with the license.
- the backup schema for AdventureWorks, you can request this here.
And while you are at it, please do not forget to evaluate the dashboard editor. The “AdventureWorks” model provides a wealth of information to display in icCube’s interactive reports.
Here’s already a sample image of one, just to give you a taste of it.
Cheers,
Arthurabout the author

Arthur van den Berg, www.inside-vision.com
It’s a kind of magic … to transform loads of data into insight giving dashboard products that show your audience what step to take next, based on your data.
I work closely together with icCube being a Dutch reseller. I love their product that allows me and my clients to launch meaningful dashboard products and to embed analytical insights into their software.