Working with non-SQL Server data sources

As discussed throughout the book you normally build cubes based on the SQL Server relational database. SQL Server DBA's and cube developers don't always share responsibilities, although some responsibilities may overlap. Generally, cube developers have database owner permissions to the relational source, which allows them to define necessary data structures for dimensions and partitions. However, in the real world the aforementioned assumptions do not always hold. Analysis Services solution can be developed on top of any relational data source to which you could connect to using .NET or OLEDB providers. The data warehouse might be owned by a different team than the one responsible for developing Analysis Services objects. Database administrators might only be willing to provide read access to the tables and no permission to create additional objects.

In the easiest scenario, you can exploit SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to import...