Home > Storage > PowerVault > Guides > Dell PowerVault ME5 Series: Microsoft SQL Server Best Practices > OLAP/DSS workloads
An online analytic processing (OLAP) or decision support system (DSS) workload is typically dominated by large sequential reads. A storage system for OLAP/DSS workloads is primarily sized based on throughput. When designing for throughput, the performance of the entire path between the server and the drives in the PowerVault ME5 array needs to be considered. For best throughput, consider using 32Gb Fibre Channel (FC) or 25 Gbps iSCSI connectivity to the array. To meet high-throughput requirements, multiple physical paths may be required.