The Data Warehouse Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Building Dimensional Data Warehouses

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Ralph Kimball's The Data Warehouse Toolkit translates the author's extensive real-world design experience into a truly useful guide to building data warehouses for today's corporations. Written in a no-nonsense prose style, the author gives developers and managers the basics of designing, building, and running data warehouses that are effective and useful to upper management.

This book begins with the fundamentals of what data warehouses are and how they differ from traditional databases used in online transaction processing (OLTP). (Basically, data warehouses look at trends in millions of database records drawn from across organizations.) Once the author establishes this foundation, he solidly introduces the issues of data-warehouse design, using samples drawn from a wide variety of industries, including grocery stores, inventory warehouses, shipping, financial services, cable TV subscriptions, insurance, and travel. The author succinctly describes the relevant "dimensions" of each industry. (These are the values or features that management will most likely want to track for each industry. The data warehouse must be prepared to answer these "questions.")

The last section of the book covers the process of actually designing a data warehouse, from conducting user interviews to planning for the hardware needed to run a data warehouse (where databases easily run in gigabytes and include millions of records). This text also includes a discussion of how to create effective front ends for users (which will report the results of data-warehouse queries).

For its scope and intelligence, The Data Warehouse Toolkit is required reading for any developer or manager who wants to get a perspective on data warehouses before building one. --Richard Dragan

Customer Reviews:

Dimensional Modeling Made Easy.......2003-09-26

Data warehosuing is a difficult subject to grasp. There are many disciplines that have to come together to make data warehousing work : database design, business understanding, management expertise, data mining, creating reports, project management, OLAP and more.

Finding a book that can full explain the full data warehousing picture is not possible, what one must look for is a series of books or materials that will together paint the full picture.

Building Dimensional Data Warehouses is one of the books that can help readers in the process of painting the whole data warehousing picture. Ralph Kimball is an experienced data warehousing leadder who has stayed away from hype and concentrates on facts.

The focus of this is book is creating the data structure for repositories in the data warehouse set-up. This is a highly recommended book for technical readers looking to enhance on their database design skills for building large data repositories that are optimized for providing analysis.

Business readers may obtain more value from reading some of the other of Mr. Kimball's books.

Please let me know if you have found this review helpful.

Great Starter.......2003-02-26

Great place to start learning about DW. The author builds the concepts layer upon layer. Very easy to follow the progression. Once you'e finished this book, then move on to Ralph's Lifecycle Toolkit for some nitty-gritty examples and much more about building data marts into datawarehouses.

A must read.......2002-11-14

This is the best book on dimensional modeling by the master himself.Equally useful for beginners as well as experts.

Data Warehousing by example.......2002-06-29

The real life implementation examples for different types of Data Warehouses from simple to the more complex, make this book one the better of the Data Warehousing books. Kimball is an leading authority in Data Warehouses since its beginnings, and the explanations and examples are very easy to understand. I took a Master's course in Data Warehousing and read Kimball's book and Ponniah's book(Data Warehousing fundamentals). Kimball's book was the better book of the two in how useful it was and easier to understand. The version I bought had a program to run reports based on the Data Warehouse structure for each type of example. It is an antiquated program (DOS based), but it is useful in learning and helps implement some actual Data Warehousing concepts. The program needs to be installed through the command line interface of the newer versions of Windows (2000 and XP).

Get the fundamentals of Dimension modeling from this book.......2002-05-01

This book contains concepts and implementation methodology associated with building and deploying a data warehouse.

To understand data warehouse, it is important to understand the difference between an OLTP system and a data warehouse (an OLAP system). The author first emphasizes this difference before getting into the nitty gritty of data modeling.

The author is a leading advocate of Dimension modeling. He gives clear reasons for doing so and then jumps into the techniques for dimension modeling, also called as Hub-and-Spoke architecture.

Book contains examples (in the form of chapters) of data warehouse models for many verticals such as shipping, insurance, banking, subscriptions, inventory. Going through these examples will help anyone to understand data modeling and to create a dimension model based on specific requirements.

Book Description

The new edition of the classic bestseller that launched the data warehousing industry covers new approaches and technologies, many of which have been pioneered by Inmon himself
In addition to explaining the fundamentals of data warehouse systems, the book covers new topics such as methods for handling unstructured data in a data warehouse and storing data across multiple storage media
Discusses the pros and cons of relational versus multidimensional design and how to measure return on investment in planning data warehouse projects
Covers advanced topics, including data monitoring and testing
Although the book includes an extra 100 pages worth of valuable content, the price has actually been reduced from $65 to $55

Download Description

The new edition of the classic bestseller that launched the data warehousing industry covers new approaches and technologies, many of which have been pioneered by Inmon himself In addition to explaining the fundamentals of data warehouse systems, the book covers new topics such as methods for handling unstructured data in a data warehouse and storing data across multiple storage media Discusses the pros and cons of relational versus multidimensional design and how to measure return on investment in planning data warehouse projects Covers advanced topics, including data monitoring and testing Although the book includes an extra 100 pages worth of valuable content, the price has actually been reduced from $65 to $55

Customer Reviews:

Good and Bad.......2007-09-12

This book is a good introduction to data warehousing. However, the style is remarkably bad. It is very repetitious, poorly organized overall, occasionally self-contradictory, and jam-packed with cartoon-like line drawings that seldom add clarity to the discussion. The book easily could be reduced from 500 pages to 200 pages without losing any information, and with an improvement in readability.

BI for smarties.......2007-08-23

In my opinion Kimball vs Inmon is not a war of religion, they both have pro and cons in different situation. I believe people seriously interested in BI should read the book and take several advices from it. There are situation in which an Inmon design is good, there are some in which it isn't BUT to be able to judge you need to know both an be able to decide based on the customer's necessity.
The pictures in the book are really ugly and useless, nevertheless the concepts are clearly stated and easily understandable. If I have to say something wrong about it is that you need to already know what a BI system is in order to get the most out of the book. It is not for newcomers but it is definetely a good book on BI.

Review of Data Warehouse Tools.......2006-11-02

Received in a timely manner, in good condition, and it is very useful. Thx.

The (im)practical approach to DW design.......2005-08-28

If you work for a large corporation which has millions of $ to spend on DW projects, maybe you should look at this book and even consider some of the ideas that it contains.
But if you need to develop a data warehouse using limited resources and within a certain timeframe, your time will better used reading other books, because following the Inmon approach will lead you to an unnecessary complicated and expensive design.
I found that the arguments used by Inmon to demonstrate the limits of the dimensional approach are not convincing at all. For example, at page 142 he says "Because there is a different data structure for each data mart, making any data mart into a data warehouse doesn't make sense."
Having personally implemented several data warehouses using the "conformed dimensions" approach, I can guarantee that it worked and produced a very elegant and clean data model.

Everything you wanted to know about building a Data Warehouse.......2005-08-02

An extremely well written book that not only is wide in scope but also tells the story - shows how and why the data warehouse evolved. The author details the subject thoroughly, points out the pitfalls, explains the proper methodology for success. The illustrations are terrific! This is a must have for anyone involved in Data Warehousing projects.

Essential Oracle8i Data Warehousing: Designing, Building, and Managing Oracle Data Warehouses

Average customer rating:

Still the best book on Oracle data warehousing
Great Practical Book to Using Oracle*i for Data Warehousing
Practical advice from the Oracle Experts
Great coverage of the essentials
Highly recommended

Essential Oracle8i Data Warehousing: Designing, Building, and Managing Oracle Data Warehouses
Gary Dodge , and Tim Gorman
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471376787

Book Description

"This book is the definitive guide for serious Oracle8i professionals and is required reading for all Oracle data warehousing practitioners."-Shannon Platz, Senior Director, Business Intelligence & Warehouse Global Service Line, Oracle Corporation

A complete hands-on guide to Oracle8i and earlier versions In this updated and expanded edition of their critically acclaimed Oracle8 Data Warehousing, Gary Dodge and Tim Gorman clearly explain everything you'll need to know to build and manage a large, high-performance data warehouse using Oracle8i. They provide a technical roadmap to the specific Oracle8 or Oracle8i features that are relevant to designing, building, tuning, and administering an Oracle data warehouse.

After a brief review of the basic concepts, you'll find descriptions of the various hardware platforms to support the Oracle data warehouse. The authors then cover the Oracle features that can enhance a large data warehouse, the design considerations for a warehouse, and the steps necessary to load data into the warehouse. You'll also find out how to perform parallel operations using Oracle8 and Oracle8i to accomplish massive tasks more quickly. And you'll discover the specific features and techniques for implementing a distributed architecture.

With this book, you'll learn how to:
- Design a data warehouse for optimum performance
- Construct the data warehouse using Oracle8 and Oracle8i database technology
- Load data into the data warehouse
- Summarize and aggregate data within a warehouse
- Administer and monitor a data warehouse for optimum performance
- Build and manage very large (multiterabyte) data warehouses

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/
Visit the companion Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/dodge for scripts, extensions, and additional material.

Customer Reviews:

Still the best book on Oracle data warehousing.......2005-11-11

I have a ton of Oracle DW books and this one is still the gold standard for real world administration of large Oracle data warehouses. The others just plain suck because they lack details or have tons of errors. This along with Bert Scalzo's short DW book for Oracle and the older Oracle 8i Data Warehouse book by Oracle Press written by M. Corey and Abbey are still the best ones on the market.

Great Practical Book to Using Oracle*i for Data Warehousing.......2003-09-26

The heart of data warehousing is the database - Oracle, despite the bugs, is one of the most practical databases for large data repositories.

I have designed and installed Oracle data warehouses on Unix (and lately Linux) since the early nineties. The secret to a fulfilling relationship with an Oracle database set-up is knowing which stable Oracle release to use and the suitability with the operating platform.

Essential Oracle 8i Data Warehousing is focused on giving readers an objective understanding of using Oracle for implementing data warehousing repositories.

This book is better suited to technical users, who already have some understanding of Oracle, about to embark on the data warehousing process. This is not a book that is heavy on the side of data warehousing design nor dimensional modeling. There are other books that serve these subject areas well.

Please let me know if you have found this review helpful.

Practical advice from the Oracle Experts.......2002-02-23

Uses clear examples to demonstrate the best techniques for designing, building and administering efficient data warehouse solutions using Oracle. This book will give you the information you need to make your data warehouse successful. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

Great coverage of the essentials.......2001-06-30

This book has everything: a brief, high-level, overview of oracle "concepts" like background processes, sga, init parameters, etc. and, ultimately, as its name implies, a good, solid overview of 8i features, tools, and enhancements to make designing, loading, monitoring, and querying large Oracle databases (I think the term "data warehouse" is something of a misnomer) almost, well, FUN. I highly recommend it over Oracle's own, fragmented, documentation and immediately proceeded to partition my large, date-stamped, tables. Mr. Dodge, et al, have raised the bar for successful database projects. Kudos all around.

Highly recommended.......2001-06-06

I am a veteran Oracle DW designer and tuning specialist. This is a great book - very easy to read, technically accurate, and comprehensive (an unusual combination!). I can say from experience that the emphasis is in the right places. The Oracle manuals tell you how to do things - this tells you what to do and why. I highly recommend it for any Oracle DBA involved in building a data warehouse.

Building A Data Warehouse for Decision Support (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

very practical
DW / DSS Development Common Sense and Practical Advice
It's more like an experience report than a book
This is the book you give to people who say "a data what?"

Building A Data Warehouse for Decision Support (2nd Edition)
Vidette Poe , Patricia Klauer , and Stephen Brobst
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0137696396

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This is a great book on Data Warehousing for project managers, database designers and administrators, programmers, analysts, and systems and data architects. Beginning with the basics, it covers:

The difference between operational and analytical processing;
Architecture and infrastructure for the data warehouse, and examples of real-world implementations within corporations; and
The "Decision Support Life Cycle" -- from gathering requirements, modeling the data, and designing the database, to application development, implementation, and staff training.

Customer Reviews:

very practical.......2000-10-20

This book is a very practical book for information analysts, to get an overview. It covers all issues concerning a datawarehouse, without becoming too theoratical. The only minor point is the sometimes unlogical sequence.

DW / DSS Development Common Sense and Practical Advice.......1999-06-15

As someone who has been architecting, managing and implementing Data Warehouses and DSS since the beginning of the 80's I can conclude that this book is a very good introduction to Building a Data Warehouse for Decision Support. I think it would also serve as an excellent introductory book for Business Executives and DW / DSS Project Managers / Programme Managers alike. As it highlights certain pitfalls and tips from the trenches that are: not obvious to the uninitiated; avoidable; or costly then this is book is worth reading - rather than skimming through.

It's more like an experience report than a book.......1998-06-12

First I'm supprised to see the big font size used in this book, which makes the book heavy in weight light in content. Although it does make a good good picture of building a data warehouse from application point of view, it failed to say any thing about the real stuff of decision support, such as associate rule. The readers are also expecting a list of references for futher reading, but the book offered nothing! I don't recommend this book to anyone.

This is the book you give to people who say "a data what?".......1997-06-14

Ms. Poe has written an excellent book on the data warehouse and what it can do for you. She tackles questions like why do I need another database, what is the difference between a tactical and strategic data source. She does discuss star schemas but not in so much detail that you could build one. In fact, if you actually are building a data warehouse yourself, look elsewhere. I recommend "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" by Kimball. Ms. Poe sent me an e-mail that indicated her next effort would be in an unrelated field. I see that Amazon does not have a discount on this book but at some trade shows they give this book away for free. After all, it does sell the data warehouse concept

The Data Webhouse Toolkit: Building the Web-Enabled Data Warehouse

Average customer rating:

Making out like a bandit.
Excellent
Good Introduction to Web Data Warehousing
Uh, The best guide how to analyse your WEB events
Six stars !

The Data Webhouse Toolkit: Building the Web-Enabled Data Warehouse
Ralph Kimball , and Richard Merz
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471376809

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In this groundbreaking work, authors and data warehousing visionaries Ralph Kimball and Richard Merz explore a next-generation Web site architecture that exploits the unique nature of the Web's interactivity to dramatically improve an organization's understanding of its relationship with users. The Data Webhouse Toolkit isn't a how-to manual; it is a high-level look at an ambitious new approach to system design.

The foundation of the concept of Webhouses is the "clickstream"--the plethora of information that can be gleaned if only a system could capture and accurately analyze all of the interaction (or lack thereof) that occurs between Web users and the sites they access. The authors take a careful look at all of the valuable information in the clickstream and point out the complications of compiling this precious information from various gathering sources such as the user's machine, ISP, and Web site.

The book argues strongly for the application of data warehousing and dimensional analysis to the clickstream to radically improve the strategic knowledge of customer motives and actions. While there are no real-life case studies yet to illustrate the concept, this book is bound to whet the appetites of creative entrepreneurs and system architects. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: "Clickstream" concept, opportunities and barriers to information, Web site user tracking, clickstream-driven decisions, clickstream data marts, user interface design, data mining, international concerns, scalability, and project management.

Book Description

"Ralph's latest book ushers in the second wave of the Internet. . . . Bottom line, this book provides the insight to help companies combine Internet-based business intelligence with the bounty of customer data generated from the internet."--William Schmarzo, Director World Wide Solutions, Sales, and Marketing,IBM NUMA-Q.

Receiving over 100 million hits a day, the most popular commercial Websites have an excellent opportunity to collect valuable customer data that can help create better service and improve sales. Companies can use this information to determine buying habits, provide customers with recommendations on new products, and much more. Unfortunately, many companies fail to take full advantage of this deluge of information because they lack the necessary resources to effectively analyze it.

In this groundbreaking guide, data warehousing's bestselling author, Ralph Kimball, introduces readers to the Data Webhouse--the marriage of the data warehouse and the Web. If designed and deployed correctly, the Webhouse can become the linchpin of the modern, customer-focused company, providing competitive information essential to managers and strategic decision makers. In this book, Dr. Kimball explains the key elements of the Webhouse and provides detailed guidelines for designing, building, and managing the Webhouse. The results are a business better positioned to stay healthy and competitive.

In this book, you'll learn methods for:
- Tracking Website user actions
- Determining whether a customer is about to switch to a competitor
- Determining whether a particular Web ad is working
- Capturing data points about customer behavior
- Designing the Website to support Webhousing
- Building clickstream datamarts
- Designing the Webhouse user interface
- Managing and scaling the Webhouse

The companion Website at www.wiley.com/compbooks/kimball provides updates on Webhouse technologies and techniques, as well as links to related sites and resources.

Customer Reviews:

Making out like a bandit........2002-01-06

No, the book is not by the Doctor R. Kimball played by Harrison Ford in "The Fugitive" (although this R. Kimball is making out like a bandit with his Data Warehouse series.) This primary goal of this book is to cash in on the outrageous amounts of money poured into the web during the dot com bubble. Ralph Kimball wanted his piece of the action, and has extracted a tremendous pile of loot from the naive dot com companies buying into the webhouse dream.

As with a lot of other manifestations of the dot com bubble, the book seems to oversell the technology. "Personalized banner ads" and other expensive ideas have returned pennies on the dollars. Many implementations of the webhouse have proven that there is a point where data warehouse investments no longer have a positive ROI.

IMHO Data warehouse technology has its greatest impact in mature companies with mulitple years of data to analyze, and determine trends. It is not quite fit for young companies that are in the process of self definition.

Many failed dot coms poured millions into webhouses that never returned a dime. In some cases, the webhouse diverted resources from the main product, and contributed to the company's fall.

All of Kimball's books are well written. They are designed to give insight into both the political and architectural dimensions of a data warehouse project. (Data warehouse projects are generally hot beds of political intrigue. Generally the project is launched by the CEO and MBAs to improve reporting...so the data architect is generally more involved in power politics than the standard IT guy. )

I decided to only give this book only three stars because of the unfortunate tendency we all have to over promise. I wanted to temper some of the six star praise. If you are interested in learning about data warehousing, I would start with Immon, and the first DW Toolkit, and not spend any cash on this volume.

Excellent.......2001-10-31

I use this book directly in my current project and it is so useful.

Good Introduction to Web Data Warehousing.......2001-08-15

I am an avid reader of Ralph Kimball's books on Data Warehousing. I find that the books he authors well written and delivers the critical information in a digestable manner.

"Web Enabled Data Warehouse" is not an exception. I would recommend this book more to beginners than to readers who are already familiar with Data Warehousing and fundamentals of the Internet.

Areas where the book does not have enough focus is on dynamically created pages and effect on Data Webhouse.

If you are already familiar with Data Warehousing there many not be much new to glean from this book. There are differences that are encountered with a Webhouse than traditional Warehousing but the info in this book will not necessarily bridge the gap.

Uh, The best guide how to analyse your WEB events.......2000-07-12

I agree fully, that this book must recieve six stars as a minimum. Ralph Kimball has put the lid on, this is a bestseller among DW books. It's perfect in that fashion, that this is not only for IT gurus, but for the management too. It's clearly shows, that there must be made some investments in these technologies and it will pay back more than 100% of that value. Ralph Kimball is a great man with very wide and far vision ahead. It's a must read for every DW specialist and actually for every Webmaster too.

Six stars !.......2000-04-29

If you ever read a book (or rather a toolkit) by Ralph Kimball and liked it, then buy immediately the 2 others !

This one really deals wuth the fact the relation between the internet and data warehousing.

As allways, the approach and and advice are both practical and brilliant, the models are useful, and the tools are challenging.

The impressive thing is that the book is so good even though, webhouse is actually new (2 to 3 years for the first experiment)

If you're around for some time, you will understand that webhouse are here to stay.

Customer Reviews:

Best of breed collection of essays on data warehousing.......1999-03-07

Building a data warehouse is based in the traditions of decision support, data modeling, and information center computing. Yet it is not reducible to any of these and supersedes them. Drawing on practices, technologies, and challenges that were not dreamt of until the mid 1990s. As George Zagelow's introductory essay makes clear, the data warehouse is a transformation of operational data into a from that provides business information, intelligence, and knowledge. His recommendation is to drive out nconsistencies in legacy data spanning data marts (smaller departmental assemblies). The enterprise- wide warehouse is built as the UNION of data marts where company-wide questions can be answered. If it works, this is a tactic for constructing the larger warehouse department by department. It does presuppose acceptance (or imposition) of an enterprise perspective. Mark Sweiger provides a thorough technical briefing for management on the role of massive parallel processing (MPP) as a method for tackling the large amount of data stored in warehouses. Technology is not a silver bullet here. But it is an important component of the answer. The author lays out the terms of the debate of the function shipping model (move the query to the data) versus dynamic data redistribution (rebalance skewed data by moving the data). These are not really on a collision course; and savvy administrators will look for a relational optimizer that can cost out the differences in access method. Next essays by Paul Barth and Robert Small / Herb Edelstein address examples, issues and tools in data mining applications. The first level data warehouse answers questions about which customers are buying which products or services and where and when they are doing so. But what if you either don't know what to ask or want to drill down as to why by chasing statistically significant correlation with demographic data. What if help is needed in formulating hypotheses? Then the advance to data mining is in order. Unlike the relational database model, which, in its many implementations is arguably an open standard, data mining tools are still exclusively proprietary (vendors specific lock-in is implied). Decision trees, neural networks, clustering and class analysis are the order of the day. Here the embedded technical function are pattern matching, bottom up rather drilling down through aggregates, and fuzzy logic rather than symbolic. If you recall the advertisement criticizing the consultant for quoting Sun Tzu on THE ART OF WAR, but being missing in action at implementation time, then you will want to study Bernard Boar on Understanding Data Warehousing Strategically. Without the strategic dimension, the use of the warehouse is without vision; and Boar provides that in good measure, including the references to Sun Tzu. According to Boar, the data warehouse provides the basis for a "rising tide" strategy. In this case, all the boats that are lifted by the rising tide of useable, accessible information are the knowledge workers of the enterprise. This furnishes the cherished leverage of a multiplier effect in infusing actions and roles with meaning ("informating" in S. Zuboff's sense (p. 288). Boar provides one of the most insightful and engaging essays in this excellent collection; and as a solid piece, it is capable of sustaining criticism. To be sure, the ART OF WAR is applicable to relations with business competitors - except that today the model is compete in the morning, cooperate in the afternoon. As far as relations with customers, the model is more likely to be from a different ancient Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, whose TAO DE CHING presents the sage (data warehouse consultant?) as the sea, receiving the homage (bookable revenue?) of a thousand rivers, because he places himself below them. Also included in this volume are useful essays on data quality (the "sweat" component of genius) by George Burch, Dennis Berg / Christopher Heagele; the perspective of the end-user (Katherine Glassey-Edholm); legacy systems (Katherine Hammer); object-oriented OLAP (David Menninger); staffing considerations (Narsim Ganti); updating the data warehouse (J.D. Welch). The volume is nicely edited, printed without error, and furnished with big wide margins for notes and thoughts. There are a significant number of tables, graphs, pictures, and illustrations (in attractive gray scale) which add value to the presentation. This text would make a nice addition to the library of managers, technicians, and business experts charged with the task of building and operating the enterprise data warehouse. Finally, if any doubt exists that data warehouse technology is its own separate domain of expertise, then the essay by Ramon Barquin, also one of the editors, will dispel it. He proposes a model curriculum for data warehouse training and practice. Both extensive and deep, one must wish him well with its implementation and acceptance by the information supply chain management industry. -- excerpt from my review published in Computing Reviews, April 1998

Great overview of the topic from various sources........1999-01-19

I found the book to be a bit dated in some technical areas (DW on a whole changes rapidly), but I really like the fact that the book is a conglomeration of MANY expert opinions. Most books on DW are from a single point of view, while this one combines the knowledge of many since it is from The Data Warehousing Institute. I found the areas on Managing and Staffing particularly helpful.

Building the Operational Data Store on DB2 Udb Using IBM Data Replication, Websphere Mq Family, and DB2 Warehouse Manager (Ibm Redbooks,)

Average customer rating:

Building the Operational Data Store on DB2 Udb Using IBM Data Replication, Websphere Mq Family, and DB2 Warehouse Manager (Ibm Redbooks,)
IBM Redbooks
Manufacturer: Ibm
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 073842420X

The Intranet Data Warehouse: Tools and Techniques for Building an Intranet-Enabled Data Warehouse

Average customer rating:

No value for Microsoft shops
BI for Everyman
An excellent, comprehensive account of DW today.

The Intranet Data Warehouse: Tools and Techniques for Building an Intranet-Enabled Data Warehouse
Richard Tanler
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
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Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

No value for Microsoft shops.......1999-08-19

If you are a Microsoft shop, this book is *not* for you. The book devotes only one thin chapter to Microsoft technologies, and that chapter is completely dated. I guess I should have figured as much, given that the book was published in 1997. Things have changed a lot with SQL Server 7.0, Office 2000, and Internet Explorer 5.0. A book just like this, except specific to the Microsoft platform and up-to-date, would be invaluable to me, but I'm sending this book back. For Microsoft shops, I recommend Kimball's books and "SQL Server 7 Data Warehousing" by Corey, Abbey, Abramson, Barnes, Taub and Venkitachalam. The latter is the only book I've found that tells you how to use today's Microsoft technologies to implement a data warehouse. It doesn't have quite as much as I'd like that is specific to intranet development, but it's the best book that I've found. Tony Rogers

BI for Everyman.......1999-03-30

Rick Tanler's "Intranet Data Warehouse" is well targeted for data warehousing professionals like me: stockpilers of expertise in the DW back-end issues that, up to now, have been critical success factors. We've been procrastinating dealing with the inevitable (and frightening) issues about making the these information services digestible to hundreds/thousands "real" people: casual computer users and other non-technical folks who have absolutely no interest in learning to use specialized OLAP or data mining tools. How can these services be packaged in a way that is gets managers to use them, and how can we as designers and architects engineer systems that address these requirements for extremes of ease of use and mass utilization?

Tanler suggests that its now time to address these issues head on. He introduces the concept of an Intranet Data Warehouse (a concept that has since been widely embraced by the BI community) and has written what many may consider to be the benchmark standard and high level blueprint for the Enterprise Information Portal (EIP).

I'd wholeheartedly recommend this book for data warehousing professionals seeking a view over the horizon to the age of mass utilization of BI tools , and those brave enough to begin to consider the technical implications of providing BI to Everyman.

An excellent, comprehensive account of DW today........1998-10-16

"The Intranet Data Warehouse" might lead you to believe that this book focuses solely on data warehousing in relation to the web - don't be misled by that title - this book is packed with information covering the full spectrum of issues you want to read about.

Rich covers DW theory, implementation, and practice. The vision he articulates of a corporate "information factory" is perceptive of where DW'ing truly adds business value.

There is also an accessible but thorough discussion of architecture issues, platform pros and cons, and the leading DBMS choices in the market today. There is a particulary good section on the strengths and weaknesses of Red Brick Warehouse, and the special functions it brings to decision support databases.

Best of all, Rich carries forward his vision into a well-defined path to implementation, focused largely on the "big" issues you run into in real-world applications.

Last, he does a terrific job of explaining how to get all that information OUT and make intelligent business use of it.

If you are a Kimball, Inmon, or Hackney book owner, this is an excellent addition to that collection.

Customer Reviews:

Okay overview of the process...light on most topics, though........1998-08-23

Reasonable overview of the process required to build a data warehouse...however, most topics are given only light treatment. There are better books than this on data warehousing.

Building a Data Warehouse Using SAS/Warehouse Administrator (TM) Software Course Notes

Average customer rating:

Building a Data Warehouse Using SAS/ Warehouse Administrator

Building a Data Warehouse Using SAS/Warehouse Administrator (TM) Software Course Notes
SAS Institute Inc.
Manufacturer: SAS Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Data Warehousing | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1580250068

Book Description

This Course Notes discusses using the components of SAS/Warehouse Administrator software to build a data warehouse.

Customer Reviews:

Building a Data Warehouse Using SAS/ Warehouse Administrator.......2002-03-22

This is the course guide that accompanies the instructor-based training course offered by the SAS Institute.

The course guide serves an excellent desk reference and provides detailed step-by-step exercises that can be completed outside the course itself.

The manual includes 12 sections with chapter exercises and summaries and an appendix. Section 1 Introduction to Data Warehousing has: evolution of data warehousing, modeling the warehouse and implementation tasks.

Section 2 Introduction to SAS/Warehouse Administator Software has: overview of SAS/Warehouse Administrator software, logical organization, primary interfaces, and steps for implementing the warehouse.

Section 3 Case Study includes: introduction, SAS rapid data warehouse methodology, assessment, requirements, and design.

Section 4 Getting Started with SAS/Warehouse Administrator Software includes: implementation tasks, the SAS desktop, defining warehouse environments, shared metadata, notes and icons, and cast study.

Section 5 Operational Data Defnitions has: implementation tasks, operational data definitions groups, operational data definitions, and case study.

Section 6 Data Warehouse and Subjects includes: implementation tasks, defining warehouses, and defining subjects.

Section 7 Detail Tables and Data Tables has: implementation tasks, defining detail logical tables, defining detail and data tables, and defining detail logical tables as views.

Section 8 Understanding the Process Editor has: implementation tasks, introduction, input sources for ODDs, case study dimension tables, data mappings, data transfers, building the process flows, case study data and fact table, user exits, and record selectors.

Section 9 Loading Detail Tables with the Process Editor includes: implementation tasks, load process attributes, loading detail tables, and loading detail logical tables.

Section 10 Summary Groups, Summary Tables, and MDDBs has: implementation tasks, introduction, summary groups, summary tables, and summary MDDBs.

Section 11 Information Marts has: implementation tasks, information marts, information mart items, and information mart files.

Section 12 Exploring and Exporting Metadata includes: introduction, exploring metadata, and exporting metadata.

The manual is well organized and illustrated and very user-friendly.

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