Data warehousing is one of the hottest topics in the computing industry today. For business executives, it promises significant competitive advantage for their companies, while information systems managers see it as the way to overcome the traditional roadblocks to providing business information for managers and other end users. With the publication of this book comes the most comprehensive, practical guide to designing, building, and implementing a data warehouse on the market today. Barry Devlin--one of the world's leading experts on data warehousing--is also one of the first practitioners in this area. In this book, he distills the insights and experiences gained over 10 years of designing and building data warehouses.Included are: *An explanation of the optimal three-tiered architecture for the data warehouse, with a clear division between data and information *A full description of the functions needed to implement such an architecture, including reconciling existing, diverse data and deriving consistent, valuable business information *A detailed methodology for building a data warehouse in a way that provides business value and strategic infrastructure at each stage *A high-level approach to justifying the effort involved *A view of the organizational aspects of building and maintaining a warehouse This book will become the key reference for any team undertaking the construction of a data warehouse. It is aimed primarily at the IS managers, architects, and designers involved in this process, as well as the end users having a key role in the evolving implementation of the data warehouse. 0201964252B04062001

Average Customer Review: ( 4 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

The book is well-organized and very clearly written, with the text nicely laid out on the page, making it a good deal easier to read than most books on such a dry subject.

My objective in reading the book was to put together a diagram of a complete architecture for the BIE. Using his book I was able to quickly create one by tying together the various components he describes. It would have been helpful if Devlin had done this "assembly" himself as a means of concluding the architectural aspect.

I say this because when I integrated the various components into a unified picture, a number of questions came to mind that I couldn't find answers for in his text. The only other aspect I would criticize is that he should have addressed more attention to the systems management component, since it seems to me more complex than he indicates.

Nonetheless, an excellent reference and foundation for understanding this important area of Information Technology.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Great Book, Rotten PublisherNov 09, 2009
By Mephistophocles
This book is very informative and well-written high-level view of the data warehouse, from conceptual planning to implementation. However, the publishing quality is the worst I have ever seen. The internal content of this book appears to be a cheap photocopy of a master record - text is distorted on every single page, in some cases very badly, graphs and charts are grainy and in some cases impossible to read, and the spine is flimsy at best and came apart on me after a single reading.

Bottom line - the content is excellent but AVOID THIS EDITION!!

Theory about Data WarehouseNov 29, 1999
By Andris Rozenbahs
It's very good theoretical book, but sadly without practical things. If you need clear theory, then it's ok, but if you search for practical things - the best book's are from Ralph Kimball.