Managing data access

IBM® Cognos® Analytics supports data servers, data modules, packages, data sets, and uploaded files as sources of data.

Data servers
A data server defines the physical connection to a database or a cube.
Data modules
Data modules contain data from data servers, uploaded files, data sets, other data modules, and from relational, dynamic query mode packages.
Packages
A package is a subset of a model, which can be the whole model, that is made available to the IBM Cognos Analytics application.
Data sets
Data sets are customized collections of data items that you use frequently. As you make updates to the data set, the dashboards, stories, or explorations that use that data set are also updated the next time you run them.
Uploaded files
You can upload supported file types, such as Excel spreadsheets, CSV files, or ZIP files, to IBM Cognos Analytics and use them as a source of data to create dashboards, explorations, data modules, and other content.
Data storage options for uploaded files and data sets
Cognos Analytics can store the data of each uploaded file or data set in one of two formats:
Best practices for improving query performance on uploaded files and data sets
IBM Cognos Analytics can process large uploaded files and data sets. However, to improve query performance and save memory, consider some best practices.

Parent topic: Managing