Netezza Underground: The unauthorized tales of derring-do and adventures in resilient data warehousing solutions. [Paperback]

David Birmingham (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Welcome to the Underground! Ever wanted to know more about the most powerful data processing technology on the planet? Look no further than this foray into the simplest, most effective and easiest-to-implement data appliance that the marketplace has to offer. Get some insight into the data warehousing principles that spawned the genius inside the big black box, how to leverage it to meet critical deadlines, and how to put some serious processing juice to work on a large-scale problem domain. Need some gravity-bending power to shape and mold whole terabytes-at-a-time like they were so much warm cookie dough? Inside are some tricks, tips and opinions on how to make a smooth and clean transition from an underpowered - er - overwhelmed data processing system and into the future of a quietly running appliance - that can inhale and exhale data at scales that will blow your mind. Okay, enough of the hype. Just crack the pages and get moving. This book is for those who already have a machine (and those who might want to just kick the tires). But keep in mind, once you kick the tires, you¿ll want one. Maybe two.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (October 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439207437
• ISBN-13: 978-1439207437
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #554,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Computers & Internet > Hardware > Parallel Processing Computers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, entertaining and full of useful information, November 26, 2008

By	P. Francisco (Marlborough, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Netezza Underground: The unauthorized tales of derring-do and adventures in resilient data warehousing solutions. (Paperback)

I commend David Birmingham on a book that is at once as lightly entertaining and interesting to read as it is chock full of details about just the kind of performance and operational simplicity that is possible with the Netezza Performance Server (NPS) system. Straightaway from the opening pages, Birmingham's effusive, engaging style and excitement about Netezza's system is apparent, "It inhales, crunches and publishes Libraries-of-Congress-at-a-time - and fast."

He also captures the essence of the NPS appliance in an ultra-succinct two-sentence paragraph explaining just why his "Administration Stuff" chapter is so short, "It's an appliance. Put it in the corner and let it work." I couldn't have said it better myself!

This book is comprehensive and current - even reflecting some of the more recent announcements from Netezza regarding OnStream programmability, the Netezza Developer Network and analytic appliances.

As the guy who is responsible for projecting the Netezza products and our technology direction forward, I want to recommend David Birmingham's book to current and prospective customers and partners alike, or as David himself says on the book's Dedication page, "to Enzees everywhere".

--Phil Francisco, VP Product Management & Marketing, Netezza Corporation

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Focused on consequences of poor performance, January 27, 2009

By	Chris "Chris" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netezza Underground: The unauthorized tales of derring-do and adventures in resilient data warehousing solutions. (Paperback)

This is a very entertaining book, and very nicely written. The author gives some great war stories and anecdotal information about how to avoid problems with any data warehouse implementation. As Mr. Birmingham says in great detail, insufficient testing, poorly structured data and inattention to data quality will ultimately doom any DW project. However, I was a bit disappointed to find that David Birmingham speaks mostly of the consequential pain that comes from inadequate data warehouse performance. As we all know, barring any inefficiencies introduced by the software, performance is primarily a function of the hardware used to run that software. Put another way, software can run slower than the hardware allows, but it can't make inadequate hardware run faster. It's nice to know what can be accomplished if you have adequate hardware, but Mr. Birmingham ultimately fails to demonstrate why Netezza is any better than a properly sized system running RDBMS software products that are more prevalent in the market. Inadequately configured hardware results in over-indexing, widespread use of summary tables, improper use of partitioning and other "tweaks" that make the data warehouse un-manageable. Those are consequences of the hardware configuration issue (and can result in significant pain!), but it's not something that is innate to RDBMS software.