Oracle (or Hyperion) Essbase is one of Oracle Corporation's Multidimensional database products. Data is stored and analyzed in OLAP cubes. It includes a calc script language as well as a data access/integration API.
Essbase stands for the "Extended Spreadsheet Database", and is often used for financial, accounting, and planning applications, going so far as including a MS Excel plug-in for data retrieval and writeback. It includes a "calc script" language allowing for complex formulas and allocations.
Essbase cubes fall into one of two categories - BSO (Block Storage), or ASO (Aggregate Storage). BSO cubes tend to be smaller and allow more writeback and custom calculation scripts, whereas ASO cubes are optimized for large amounts of data and somewhat simpler calculation possibilities.
The Essbase Database Administrator's Guide, is useful for developers integrating systems into Essbase and building cubes.
Essbase commonly is used closely with Oracle Hyperion Performance Management / Hyperion Planning, and a in-memory parallel version of the MDBMS is part of Oracle Exalytics.
