Secrets of the Best Data Warehouses in the World [Paperback]

Rob Armstrong (Author), Tom Coffing (Author), Rolf Hanusa (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2000

This book is a fundamental guide for executives and decision makers involved in a data warehouse. This easy to read manual puts the business user and the IT staff on the same page for data warehousing. It gives you the six foundations and principles to follow that are essential secrets at the largest and best data warehouses in the world. It also gives you the red flags and warning signs to beware of when implementing a data warehouse.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'...first common sense book I've read about data warehousing and applying computers to business....c -- Tracy Austin, VP, IT Development Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.

“Excerpts from the book were incorporated into our Company's Global Decision Support Strategy... -- Kevin Bubeck, Data Warehouse Program Manager Coca-Cola USA

About the Author

Rolf Hanusa, Tom Coffing, and Rob Armstrong, have designed, implemented, consulted, and trained at the largest and most successful data warehouses in the world. Rolf Hanusa is one of the key leaders in building the SBC data warehouse, which is the largest data warehouse in the world. Tom Coffing is Vice President of Coffing Data Warehousing and has trained and consulted at over 50 major warehouse sites. Rob Armstrong help build the first Terabyte data warehouse. Rob's been involved in all aspects of the industry from developing code for relational database sytems, to leading implementations for some of the most succesful data warehouses in the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: Coffing Data Warehousing (October 16, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0970498004
• ISBN-13: 978-0970498007
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,802,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is misleading, May 16, 2001

By 

Julie Kimball (Boulder Creek, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secrets of the Best Data Warehouses in the World (Paperback)

This book is more closely related to the NCR/Teradata approach to data warehousing than is divulged in the book and the authors' bios. It's a vendor specific sales tool masquerading as a book. This kind of "book" is what consultants might like to hand over with a sales proposal tucked inside to add legitimacy. I would suggest that any reader of this book read it critically in light of the NCR/Teradata connection given that the "secrets" are consistent with the NCR/Teradata approach to data warehousing, but not the wider world of data warehousing.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advice from real experts who are actually succeeding in DW, October 4, 2003

By 

Daniel P. Baker (Effort of the Poconos, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secrets of the Best Data Warehouses in the World (Paperback)

Too many professional books are written by "experts" with only a shallow understanding of what they're writing about.

"Secrets of the Best Data Warehouses..." is a happy exception. I'm a market analyst who tracks the telecom IT industry. I know one of the authors, Rolf Hanusa, has been the technical architect and driving force behind SBC Communications' enterprise data warehouse since 1993. And believe me, 10 years is an incredibly long time in the IT hot seat, especially considering the many failures in the telecom warehouse space.

In fact, the SBC Communications data warehouse is today's largest telecom warehouse with 10s of thousands of users and 35 terabytes of on-line data. Not only is the warehouse handling an average 100,000 queries a day, but it's steadily taking over the reporting functions of operational systems such as billing, provisioning, and finance. It's one of those rare cases where the textbook "one-version-of-the-truth" warehouse is actually working.

The "secrets" Hanusa et al. reveal are not technical tricks, but the guiding principles that make for a successful data warehouse implementation and on-going program.

If you're a technical guy looking for speeds and feeds, system diagrams, and hardware specs, this book is not for you. Instead, it's written for the executives and technical managers whose jobs are on the line when a data warehouse fails.

The book is written in plain English. Caricatures and analogies break up the text into bite-sized kernels. While it's an easy read, the book doesn't skirt the tough subjects. You'll get advice on things like: ensuring data integrity, handling the "query from hell", cost justifying the warehouse, central vs. decentralized structure, detailed vs. summarized data, and winning executive support.

Several of the reviews I read suggest the book is biased towards the Teradata warehouse. This is hogwash. Teradata is not even mentioned in the book, but the book *does* take the concept of a centralized data warehouse to heart. In other words, don't buy this book if you're building a case for a stovepiped data mart. This book advocates just the opposite.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Narrow approach and vendor specific, January 7, 2002

By 

witgenstein "witgenstein" (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets of the Best Data Warehouses in the World (Paperback)

I believe this book will only be useful to companies using NCR Teradata systems. The approach is very vendor-specific and uses methods that are most practical with NCR. If you want to learn about good data warehouses and such, you'd be better off looking at "Best Practices" presentations and papers at the Data Warehouse Institute.