Customer Reviews

Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Data Mining with Microsoft SQL 2008" is a great resource for learning how to perform data mining using SQL Server 2008 and Analysis Services 2008, with the added benefit that it is written by some of the people that influenced the design of the product. The presentation is clear and easy to read, and the content is rich in examples of using the Analysis Services data mining algorithms. Aspects such as how to create mining models, how to view them, and how to interpret results are covered in detail. An entire chapter is dedicated to creating plug-in algorithms, which is a powerful way of extending existing algorithms and implementing new solutions for a custom data mining problem. Another chapter covers mining data in Excel using the Data Mining Add-in for Excel, which I find to be very useful for experimenting with data sets and for quickly analyzing data. I recommend this book as a great source for gaining valuable knowledge if you are interested in Data Mining using SQL Server 2008 and Analysis Services 2008.

Disclaimer: I worked on the development of Analysis Services 2008 and I have reviewed some of the book samples.

This book was a very useful resource while developing a plug-in algorithm to the SQL Server Data Mining framework. I have had mixed results in the past trying to integrate into the framework, but both this book and the previous SQL Server 2005 version answered all my questions and helped me and my company to create a much improved product offering. With a little bit of time vague requests like "build a recommendation engine" can be turned into crowd pleasers, without having to delve into custom algorithm development and extensive research.

The price tag is a little steep, but the content is well worth it.

This is an excellent book for beginner to expert. Contains tons of relevant information. Could have been more detailed for the beginner, but authors did as well as possible without having to write a multi-volume version. Mid level to expert users should have no problem understanding the examples and solutions used in the book. I strongly recommend this book.

This is an excellent hands-on book on learning core concepts of data mining with SQL Server 2008. I have used this book as part of our Data Mining certification course at University Of Washington. The examples are very clear and their step-by-step approach really helped me in understanding various mining models and learning DMX query. Highly recommend for aspirant and experienced BI professionals.

Jamie MacLennan, ZhaoHui Tang, and Bogdan Crivat have done a superb job on this book and for those of us that had to deal with the 2005 version rest assured dear reader that the 2008 version is a 'work of art'. The writing is clear and concise. The examples are easy to work with, understandable and gone are the complex mathmathics that required genious to interpret. I have bought a copy for myself and two for the office. I have a problem with recommending books for the sake of recommending them. Trust me the 2008 version is worth every cent!!. Thanks Jamie et Al and well done!!!!

This is a superb book. I was sad to see when Jamie moved on from Microsoft (well sad for the product team at least, perhaps not for him as his new venture looks exciting). But this book is a must-read for anyone starting to get involved with Data Mining in SQL Server 2008.

This is an excellent book, highly recommended by me and my numerous colleagues in the data mining community - one I support for a living, and not just teach. There is little use for theoretical learning if practical application is not also supported. Data Mining with SQL Server 2008 (as the previous 2005 edition) thoroughly covers not only the theory, but also the full feature-set of Microsoft's extensive data mining tools. Is it possible to buy a book with more detail on theoretical aspects of the subject? Possibly. But if you want to actually use the rich data mining features in the best business intelligence product available in the world both readily and efficiently without wading through stacks of PhD fodder, this book is perfect, and none can surpass it that I know of.

The number of stars may be unfair but for my purposes the book was not sufficiently elementary to get started. I have SQL Server 2008 loaded on my laptop with the Integration Services but I cannot tell from the tutorials that came with SQL Server how to get started building a data base and then using data mining techniques on it. The book mentions databases that can be downloaded but does not tell me where to put them or how to tell SQL Server where they are and connect to them. I'm familiar with the required knowledge about both data bases and statistics but not with SQL Server so this is not the book I needed. It may be very good but not for my purposes. I'll know better when I get going with SQL Server 2008. Peter Jurkat

This book is typical of titles confined to a single vendor's tool. The focus is on this tool's features, not data mining. Learning the principles of data mining first will make a book like this unnecessary, and help you avoid pitfalls not covered by books like this one.

If you want to understand data mining, I recommend titles such as:

"Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Second Edition", by Witten and Frank ISBN: 0120884070

or

"Data Mining, Second Edition : Concepts and Techniques, Second Edition", by Han and Kamber ISBN: 1558609016