Description:
Written for analysts who have at least some previous experience with data warehousing, Microsoft OLAP Solutions provides a working guide to analyzing legacy data with the new Microsoft online analytical processing (OLAP) Services. This book assumes you understand the fundamentals of what data warehousing is and how it works; if you do, this guide masterfully presents the strengths (and limitations) of OLAP technology. Database (DB) analysts know that Microsoft OLAP is the proverbial new kid on the block when it comes to data warehousing. It offers good wizards and tools to simplify creation and maintenance of a data warehouse. While the authors of Microsoft OLAP Solutions dutifully explain some of the technical terminology related to OLAP (like cubes and dimensions) and design, many readers will likely seize on the chapters that examine actually using OLAP wizards and tools for building warehouses. Moreover, the reference to MDX (OLAP's data-analysis language) will be invaluable here. This book presents some warehousing theory first, and then it focuses on specifics, including two excellent case studies (for analyzing databases for health care and a grocery store) at the end of the book. It also offers chapters on implementing changes and optimizing OLAP databases once they are up and running. There's little doubt that with the weight of Microsoft behind it, OLAP will be a reasonable option for many corporate data warehouses. This book gives you all the information you need to apply your data warehouse knowledge to this new Microsoft platform. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: Microsoft OLAP, datahouse warehousing design, dimensions and cubes, pure OLAP (MOLAP), relational OLAP (ROLAP), hybrid OLAP (HOLAP), Multidimensional Expressions (MDX), maintenance, and optimization.
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