Palo is a memory resident multidimensional (

online analytical processing In computing, online analytical processing (OLAP) (), is an approach to quickly answer multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries. The term ''OLAP'' was created as a slight modification of the traditional database term online transaction proces ...

(OLAP) or multidimensional online analytical processing (

MOLAP In computing, online analytical processing (OLAP) (), is an approach to quickly answer multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries. The term ''OLAP'' was created as a slight modification of the traditional database term online transaction proces ...

))

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

server and typically used as a

business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) consists of strategies, methodologies, and technologies used by enterprises for data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of BI technologies include Financial reporting, reporting, online an ...

tool for controlling and

budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...

ing 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 c ...

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 Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

and

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

Jedox Jedox is a software company specialized in enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions. The company provides planning, analytics, and reporting tools for various business functions—including Finance, Sales, Human Resources, and Ope ...

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

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, 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 editor developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a ...

. 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) and Collabora Online, with Apache OpenOffice being considered mostly d ...

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 is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards 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++, or .NET Framework. It is fairly easy to communicate with Palo OLAP Server, since it uses

representational state transfer REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design and guide the development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of ...

(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 Coun ...

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 spre ...

(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 progra ...

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