Controlling the use of linked objects in SSAS

Linked objects in SSAS should be used very carefully, as the object resides in the original cube and just a link is created in the target cube. The risk is that when multiple teams are working on different projects, people can take a shortcut for faster development and create links out of other cubes. Linked objects has a limitation that its definition cannot be modified in the target cube design, and this can be a big bottleneck if this is not the desired design. In an environment where multiple cubes are developed in the same solution, allowing free use of linked objects opens up a risk of creating a spider web of linked objects across cubes. In this tip we will look at how to control the use of linked objects in a cube.