Summary tables store data that is aggregated and/or summarized for performance r

easons (i.e., to improve the performance of business queries). Most business qu

eries (i.e., approximately 80%) will run against summary tables.
Data is aggregated by combining multiple concepts together and/or combining larg
e amounts of detailed data together.
Most business queries analyze a summarization or aggregation of data (i.e., fact
s) across one or more dimensions. Therefore, a summary table may use multiple d
imensions. For example, a table that analyzes accounts by region by customer by
service by month uses four dimensions.
Design Considerations
The main objective when designing summary tables is to minimize the amount of da
ta being accessed and the number of tables being joined. This is done by storin
g intermediate query results, such as:
summaries of large amounts of data (e.g., summing product inventory by
quarter),
combinations of multiple concepts (e.g., sales by customer by market),
reference data (e.g., product description).