At IBM IOD last week, there were a lot of sessions on Dynamic Query Mode and Dynamic Cubes. Although DQM has been around since Cognos 10.1, in Cognos 10.2 it becomes the default mode. Dynamic Query Mode is very powerful, leveraging a 64-bit Java-built query engine that does many things better, including:
- Better query optimization
- Better balanced load processing
- OLAP-over-relational-database functionality
- Security aware caching
It also permits the use of 64 bit data source drivers.
Dynamic Query Mode is set in the Cognos package itself from Framework Manager at publish time (the other option is “Compatibility Mode” which is still available) so the package drives which query mode is employed at report run time. Because of its Java base, Dynamic Query Mode requires JDBC for relational database connections.
Dynamic Cubes are a brand new feature in Cognos 10.2, and are available as an extension to Cognos Framework Manager. There are still limitations on what Dynamic Cubes can use as a data source (it must be a star schema structured data mart at this time), but it delivers a powerful in-memory cube instead of a summary cube file. Dynamic Cubes offer access to larger cube data sets (over terabytes of data) and in-memory aggregation. The Dynamic Cube interface is easy and intuitive (at least as demo’d) so it appears as though it will be a welcome addition to the Cognos family.
