Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback]

Sivakumar Harinath (Author), Stephen R. Quinn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764579185 | ISBN-13: 978-0764579189 | Publication Date: May 30, 2006

• Written by the lead developers of Analysis Services at Microsoft, this book begins with an overview showing how Analysis Services and MDX can be used to build data warehouses and multidimensional databases
• The authors then describe the development processes for building dimensions and cubes from various data sources
• Demonstrating a variety of techniques in real-world scenarios, the book shows how MDX can be used to query databases to provide sophisticated analysis of business problems
• Finally, the book explains how Analysis Services can be used with other components of SQL Server, including DTS, data mining, and Report Services, to provide comprehensive, end-to-end solutions

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 provides you with the business intelligence platform needed to build full-scale, multidimensional databases. MDX is the query language used to extract information from those multidimensional databases. Analysis Services 2005 supports core business functions such as market analysis, budgeting and forecasting.

Written by members of the Analysis Services product team at Microsoft, this timely and authoritative book shows you how to use Analysis Services along with SQL Server components like Integration Services, Data Mining, and Reporting Services to provide comprehensive, end-to-end solutions. Ultimately you'll learn to solve business problems by leveraging all the tools that SQL Server 2005 has to offer.

What you will learn from this book

• The development process for designing Unified Dimensional Models (UDM)
• Using to MDX to query databases and for sophicticated business analysis
• How to harness features such as multiple measure groups, BI wizards, Key performance indicators, and Actions
• How to integrate Analysis Services with other SQL Server 2005 components in order to provide the best possible end-to-end solutions
• How to manage and secure Analysis Services efficiently in support of your BI users
• How to optimize your design and/or scale Analysis Services to extract the best performance

Who this book is for

This book is for database and data warehouse developers and administrators interested in exploiting the power of BI and leveraging the SQL Server 2005 tool set.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Sivakumar Harinath was born in Chennai, India. Siva has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His thesis title was: “Data Management Support for Distributed Data Mining of Large Datasets over High Speed Wide Area Networks.” Siva has worked for Newgen Software Technologies (P) Ltd., IBM Toronto Labs, Canada, and has been at Microsoft since February of 2002. Siva started as a Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) in the Analysis Services Performance Team and is currently an SDET Lead for Analysis Services 2005. Siva’s other interests include high performance computing, distributed systems and high speed networking. Siva is married to Shreepriya and had twins Praveen and Divya during the course of writing this book. His personal interests include travel, games/sports (in particular, Chess, Carrom, Racquet Ball, Board games) and Cooking. You can reach Siva at [e-mail]

Stephen Quinn was born in San Luis Obispo, California. Stephen has a Masters degree (1988) in Cognitive Psychology from California State University, Chico and is scheduled to receive his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Washington, Seattle, in June 2006. Stephen is married to Katherine and is raising his daughter, Anastasia. He has been in most roles common to the R&D environment i.e., software developer, technical writer, technical support specialist and several quality assurance roles. Stephen has published some 20 articles in the magazines Byte, InfoWorld and Datamation. With 15+ years of software experience; Stephen has worked the last 8 years at Microsoft; most recently as a Technical Writer in SQL User Education and before that, for several years as Test Manager in the SQL Business Intelligence Unit. You can reach Stephen at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764579185
• ISBN-13: 978-0764579189
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, August 31, 2006

By 

K. Griffiths (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I needed to know quickly how to implement a BI solution and ordered three books: Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 by Brian Larsen, Applied Microsoft Analysis Services by Teo Lachev, and this book. Of the tree books, this is the only one I really needed. This book had everything I wanted to know about Analysis Services. I was also impressed with the knowledge and information regarding how to design dimensions and cubes especially when it comes to tough situations such as how to apply security. If you need to implement a BI solution, I highly recommend this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a mess, March 18, 2007

By 

L. Van Staalduinen (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I do not understand why this book gets such high ratings by other readers. I found this book a real mess. My concise evaluation of "Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX":
· general: bad as a tutorial, but it might serve as a good reference,
· incorrect code: see below,
· incorrect references to other chapters,
· extremely inconsistent use of names of the cube, tables, dimensions, measures, etc., which makes the learning process more like a puzzle,
· subjects, details are scattered over many chapters (which has some advantages as well), but complicates the learning process.

In chapter 3 of this book it starts with code samples, that are incorrect in almost any sense. Not really being a novice, but having my first experience with SSAS (that is: the 2005 version, I had some experience with the 2000 predecessor), I was blaming my ignorance. I could better do not: I simply had to correct about every code sample.
I made a long list of errata, that I have sent to Wiley/Wrox on January 9, 2007. These errata are very detailed and specific, but I do not find the results in the list of errata of this book on the Wiley or Wrox site. They simply did not process my errata.
So, I finally bought "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services" by Melomed, et.al. (Sams, 2007). My first impression: very good, indeed. I just have it for two days now, so my review will take a few more months.
Leendert.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must for business intelligence...., August 22, 2006

By 

D. Gresty "Hammerit" (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

I have over 9 years of database experience, with about 4 years in MS Data Warehousing experience which included Reporting Services and DTS.

With the major improvements made with SQL Server 2005, this book allowed me to create a TOTAL business intelligence system which included SSIS, Analysis Services, MDX and Reporting. The book is easy to read and contains valuable information that I haven't seen in other books.

I know following the information in this book is that the client received a top notch system from beginning to the end.