Building And Maintaining A Data Warehouse

As it is with building a house, most of the work necessary to build a data warehouse is neither visible nor obvious when looking at the completed product. While it may be easy to plan for a data warehouse that incorporates all the right concepts, taking the steps needed to create a warehouse that is as functional and user-friendly as it is theoreti

Building a Data Warehouse: With Examples in SQL Server describes how to build a data warehouse completely from scratch and shows practical examples on how to do it. Author Vincent Rainardi also describes some practical issues he has experienced that developers are likely to encounter in their first data warehousing project, along with solutions and advice. The relational database management system (RDBMS) used in the examples is SQL Server; the version will not be an issue as long as the user has SQL Server 2005 or later. The book is organized as follows. In the beginning of this book (chapters 1 through 6), you learn how to build a data warehouse, for example, defining the architecture, understanding the methodology, gathering the requirements, designing the data models, and creating the databases. Then in chapters 7 through 10, you learn how to populate the data warehouse, for example, extracting from source systems, loading the data stores, maintaining data quality, and utilizing the metadata. After you populate the data warehouse, in chapters 11 through 15, you explore how to present data to users using reports and multidimensional databases and how to use the data in the data warehouse for business intelligence, customer relationship management, and other purposes. Chapters 16 and 17 wrap up the book: After you have built your data warehouse, before it can be released to production, you need to test it thoroughly. After your application is in production, you need to understand how to administer data warehouse operation. What you’ll learn A detailed understanding of what it takes to build a data warehouse The implementation code in SQL Server to build the data warehouse Dimensional modeling, data extraction methods, data warehouse loading, populating dimension and fact tables, data quality, data warehouse architecture, and database design Practical data warehousing applications such as business intelligence reports, analytics applications, and customer relationship management Who this book is for There are three audiences for the book. The first are the people who implement the data warehouse. This could be considered a field guide for them. The second is database users/admins who want to get a good understanding of what it would take to build a data warehouse. Finally, the third audience is managers who must make decisions about aspects of the data warehousing task before them and use the book to learn about these issues.

The new edition of the classic bestseller that launched thedata warehousing industry covers new approaches and technologies,many of which have been pioneered by Inmon himself In addition to explaining the fundamentals of data warehousesystems, the book covers new topics such as methods for handlingunstructured data in a data warehouse and storing data acrossmultiple storage media Discusses the pros and cons of relational versusmultidimensional design and how to measure return on investment inplanning data warehouse projects Covers advanced topics, including data monitoring andtesting Although the book includes an extra 100 pages worth of valuablecontent, the price has actually been reduced from $65 to $55

Aimed at helping business and IT managers clearly communicate with each other, this helpful book addresses concerns straight-on and provides practical methods to building a collaborative data warehouse . You’ll get clear explanations of the goals and objectives of each stage of the data warehouse lifecycle while learning the roles that both business managers and technicians play at each stage. Discussions of the most critical decision points for success at each phase of the data warehouse lifecycle help you understand ways in which both business and IT management can make decisions that best meet unified objectives.

"Data warehouses provide a much-needed strategy for organizations to collect, store, and analyze vast amounts of business data. As businesses expand both brick-and-mortar and online activities, the field of data warehousing has become increasingly important. Since it was first published in 1990, W. H. Inmon's Building the Data Warehouse has been the bible of data warehousing - it is the book that launched the data warehousing industry and it remains the preeminent introduction to the subject. This new edition covers the latest developments with this technology, many of which have been pioneered by Inmon himself."--BOOK JACKET.

Here is the ideal field guide for data warehousing implementation. This book first teaches you how to build a data warehouse, including defining the architecture, understanding the methodology, gathering the requirements, designing the data models, and creating the databases. Coverage then explains how to populate the data warehouse and explores how to present data to users using reports and multidimensional databases and how to use the data in the data warehouse for business intelligence, customer relationship management, and other purposes. It also details testing and how to administer data warehouse operation.

Market Basket Analysis (MBA) provides the ability to continually monitor the affinities of a business and can help an organization achieve a key competitive advantage. Time Variant data enables data warehouses to directly associate events in the past with the participants in each individual event. In the past however, the use of these powerful tools in tandem led to performance degradation and resulted in unactionable and even damaging information. Data Warehouse Designs: Achieving ROI with Market Basket Analysis and Time Variance presents an innovative, soup-to-nuts approach that successfully combines what was previously incompatible, without degradation, and uses the relational architecture already in place. Built around two main chapters, Market Basket Solution Definition and Time Variant Solution Definition, it provides a tangible how-to design that can be used to facilitate MBA within the context of a data warehouse. Presents a solution for creating home-grown MBA data marts Includes database design solutions in the context of Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and Teradata relational database management systems (RDBMS) Explains how to extract, transform, and load data used in MBA and Time Variant solutions The book uses standard RDBMS platforms, proven database structures, standard SQL and hardware, and software and practices already accepted and used in the data warehousing community to fill the gaps left by most conceptual discussions of MBA. It employs a form and language intended for a data warehousing audience to explain the practicality of how data is delivered, stored, and viewed. Offering a comprehensive explanation of the applications that provide, store, and use MBA data, Data Warehouse Designs provides you with the language and concepts needed to require and receive information that is relevant and actionable.

Updated new edition of Ralph Kimball's groundbreaking book ondimensional modeling for data warehousing and businessintelligence! The first edition of Ralph Kimball's The Data WarehouseToolkit introduced the industry to dimensional modeling,and now his books are considered the most authoritative guides inthis space. This new third edition is a complete library of updateddimensional modeling techniques, the most comprehensive collectionever. It covers new and enhanced star schema dimensional modelingpatterns, adds two new chapters on ETL techniques, includes new andexpanded business matrices for 12 case studies, and more. Authored by Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross, known worldwide aseducators, consultants, and influential thought leaders in datawarehousing and business intelligence Begins with fundamental design recommendations and progressesthrough increasingly complex scenarios Presents unique modeling techniques for business applicationssuch as inventory management, procurement, invoicing, accounting,customer relationship management, big data analytics, and more Draws real-world case studies from a variety of industries,including retail sales, financial services, telecommunications,education, health care, insurance, e-commerce, and more Design dimensional databases that are easy to understand andprovide fast query response with The Data WarehouseToolkit: The Definitive Guide to Dimensional Modeling, 3rdEdition.