Around 2010, were a common way to support analytics. They were the fastest way to do interactive analysis over a fixed set of "dimensions". They could be connected to Excel, Power BI, or custom dashboards.

One of the popular solutions was Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services, or SSAS. SSAS was well integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem (SQL Server, SSIS, etc.) and so was a popular default choice for companies using the SQL Server stack.