Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This Step by Step guide serves as a great starting point for getting familiar with Microsoft's Analysis services. It starts with a quick introduction to data warehousing (without resorting to giving an entire history of the subject, as seems so common today) and how it relates to OLAP and then moves right into the Analysis Servies tools.
The chapters are well written and get you the information you need, without missing any major details. Even if you don't plan to take the "step by step" approach, this book is worth having by your side.
All right... now for the downsides. At best this book is good for beginners. These are some of the areas where I found it came up short:
- Sizing systems that will support Analysis Services. The book talks a bit about how big cubes are, but there is no information about cube performance/cube sizing, etc. Basically, this book won't help you develop a hardware plan for hosting Analysis Services.
- Accessing Analysis Services via the web. All of Microsoft's literature talks about how SQL Server 2000's great support for the web/XML. Strangely, it is very hard to find this information for Analysis Services, and this book doesn't provide any guidance. Right now it seems that the best you can do to find this information is hunt around Microsoft's site.
Overall I still think this is good book. However, if you are going to be building a large Analysis Services system, expect to be looking for other sources to answer all of your questions.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals)


MICROSOFT® SQL SERVER™ 2000 ANALYSIS SERVICES STEP BY STEP shows Microsoft Excel and Access experts, IS managers, and database developers how to build applications that take advantage of the powerful data-analysis services in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. You'll discover why these services make it easier to analyze huge amounts of data quickly, and you'll learn how to develop a wide range of advanced dimensional-data applications-from enterprise reporting tools to advanced decision-support systems. The book's easy-to-follow lessons begin with clear objectives and include real-world business examples, with a companion CD full of sample files that support each lesson.

This title shows you how to:

Administer the Analysis Manager: Understand the fundamentals behind data dimensions and hierarchies, data warehousing, and the Microsoft Analysis Services architecture, and use the Microsoft Analysis Manager application to define and populate data cubes.
Create and display cubes: Define and modify measures and dimensions. Design, build, process, and view cubes, from simple to advanced, with cube and dimension editors. Use Microsoft Excel PivotTable® Reports and the PivotTable List in Microsoft Excel to browse cubes, and create cubes using Microsoft Office.
Query cubes: Use multidimensional expressions (MDX) values and sets and the MDX Sample application to query and display dimensional data.
Perform advanced administration: Choose data storage options and the Storage Design Wizard to optimize, manage, and update data efficiently. Automate the Analysis server to process an OLAP database. Work with partitions and automate updates, and apply security to cubes.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

Click here for more information about Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals)

Read More...

The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making Your Business Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I thought this book was definitely worthwhile. It gave a good explanation of the multidimensional data framework and what can be done with it. Even though I don't use Oracle, I found the discussion interesting and the concepts useful. I do web marketing as a profession and have been curious about what kinds of analyses can be done with OLAP and business intelligence tools. I think this book did a good job of explaining that. I ran across the book at the office, I picked it up and found it very readable. The book included a lot of technical specifics about how to work with the Oracle system, which I glossed over mostly, but was still able to follow the rest of the book just fine. If you want specifics on Oracle (Analytic Workspaces, Oracle OLAP, etc), you'll find them here, if you want the concepts of OLAP and multidimensional data analysis, you'll find that too, all in a well-written volume with a few funny cartoons.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making Your Business Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP

The Multi-dimensional Data Modeling Toolkit provides an In-depth treatment of Oracle OLAP as well as a comprehensive examination of analytical techniques in a multidimensional OLAP framework. Application developers and database administrators will appreciate this book, packed with examples, tricks and techniques, and concrete illustrations of the programming elements needed to implement high-performance analytical applications. Data miners, statisticians, and power analysts will find the analysis techniques of particular interest.Written in a tutorial style, this book gives, in plain English, a step-by-step development of the defining principles of OLAP analysis through the lens of the programming language at the heart of Oracle's OLAP database option. This book represents over 15 years of hands-on experience developing multidimensional analytic applications for over a dozen companies.Whether you are new to business intelligence or a seasoned practitioner, The Multi-dimensional Data Modeling Toolkit will have something to offer.

Get 38% OFF

Click here for more information about The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making Your Business Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP

Read More...

The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling (Second Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)There are a lot of data warehousing books out there that try to answer the question: 'Why'? Why data warehouses are needed to help businesses make better decisions - why the OLTP systems that run the business can't do this - and sometimes even why businesses ought to invest in data warehouses. These books were terrifically useful to us years ago, when we needed help (and scholarly footnotes) in our data warehouse project proposals. This book is not one of those - it is all about:
How
How to actually design and build a repository that will deliver real value to real people. In this reviewer's opinion, Ralph Kimball's many contributions related to the 'how' of data warehousing stand alone.
An engineer wishing to jump-start his or her data warehouse education would need to read Ralph's Data Warehouse Toolkit first edition, his Data Webhouse Toolkit... a bunch of "Data Warehouse Designer" Intelligence Enterprise magazine articles... AND lurk on the Data Warehousing List Server...for a few years (all terrific resources - by the way) - in order to stockpile the knowledge that is crisply presented here.
No shortcuts taken by the authors that I can spot: all of the toughest dimensional design issues that I've tripped on - and that I can remember surfacing on in discussion groups over the past few years - are addressed in this significantly updated text. Not all of the solutions are 'pretty' - but it is clear that they thoughtfully address the problem. This approach, in my opinion, instills student confidence - and lets us know that we are getting sound instruction - not dogma.
The authors have been listening to and addressing the data warehouse community's 'pain' through periodicals and posts for years - but this book pulls these point solutions together very nicely. I learned a surprising number of really useful new techniques, and was genuinely enlightened by the 'Present Imperatives and Future Outlook' section.
As in the first edition, there is minimal philosophical lecturing, and zero religion. Instead, we get generous helpings of real-world case studies - aptly applied to progressively more advanced series of design concepts.
This style absolutely works for me. And I suspect that engineering mindsets typical of the folks that build these things will likely agree. In short, the Data Warehouse Toolkit Second Edition will significantly lighten the load of books that I carry between data warehouse engagements.
Jim Stagnitto
Llumino, Inc.
www.llumino.com

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling (Second Edition)

The latest edition of the single most authoritative guide on dimensional modeling for data warehousing!
Dimensional modeling has become the most widely accepted approach for data warehouse design. Here is a complete library of dimensional modeling techniques-- the most comprehensive collection ever written. Greatly expanded to cover both basic and advanced techniques for optimizing data warehouse design, this second edition to Ralph Kimball's classic guide is more than sixty percent updated.
The authors begin with fundamental design recommendations and gradually progress step-by-step through increasingly complex scenarios. Clear-cut guidelines for designing dimensional models are illustrated using real-world data warehouse case studies drawn from a variety of business application areas and industries, including:
* Retail sales and e-commerce
* Inventory management
* Procurement
* Order management
* Customer relationship management (CRM)
* Human resources management
* Accounting
* Financial services
* Telecommunications and utilities
* Education
* Transportation
* Health care and insurance
By the end of the book, you will have mastered the full range of powerful techniques for designing dimensional databases that are easy to understand and provide fast query response. You will also learn how to create an architected framework that integrates the distributed data warehouse using standardized dimensions and facts.
This book is also available as part of the Kimball's Data Warehouse Toolkit Classics Box Set (ISBN: 9780470479575) with the following 3 books:

The Data Warehouse Toolkit, 2nd Edition (9780471200246)
The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, 2nd Edition (9780470149775)
The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit (9780764567575)

Get 30% OFF

Click here for more information about The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling (Second Edition)

Read More...