Rating: 
Summary: An Indispensible Book
Review: After six years of creating data warehouse applications, making a plethora of mistakes and learning stuff the hard way, I wish I had had this book at the start! Every other page offers a solution to some problem or other that I have had. In the project I am just starting I am facing new challenges and am finding help with them as well. The best part is how solutions I used in the past which were appropriate for those problems are contrasted with solutions for problems like the ones I am facing now. Almost as bad as solving a problem the wrong way (or overlooking it entirely) is reusing an old solution that does not fit the new problem. This book clearly spells out when each solution is appropriate. I can not speak too highly about how useful this book will be for you!
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Summary: Data Warehousing is in the eye of the beholder
Review: Data Warehousing is more of an art than a science - but then again what isn't?There isn't a standard blueprint that can come close to solving most data issues. Data Warehousing (DW) involves constant tweaking and the goal of good DW project management is minimizing the associated operational cost. I have been a fan of Ralph Kimball as he writes as a person who has been through many implementations. With Mr. Kimball there isn't a miracle cure being touted - stay away from publications that claim such a cure. Mr. Kimball approached the subject with good advices and encourages the readers to watch out for the pitfalls and follow best-practices in design implementation. It is similar to working with a well experienced supervisor. The core to successful DW implementations is - LISTENING. Listening to the users on their needs and gauging the software resources available at your disposal. Trade-offs in design versus cost/performance are a must. You will never have all the resources you need to implement the DW of your dreams. And if you did, chances are very high that once the DW is ready for use the business cases have changed making the design redundant. Mr. Kimball will help in passing these information and much more. It also goes in good technical detail for suggested modeling of data. I hope this review is helpful, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
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Summary: Nilesh Sahita
Review: Excellent work. When I first saw it I thought it was mere rewrite with simple correction of the first edition that I had bought in 1996. Thankfully I still sit down with the second edition and I realized how much additional insight I would have missed had I not read the second edition. It is very well written, thought provoking and easy to follow and yet conveys many complex concepts. Congratulations to Ralph and Margy.
Rating:
Summary: Nilesh Sahita
Review: Excellent work. When I first saw it I thought it was mere rewrite with simple correction of the first edition that I had bought in 1996. Thankfully I still sit down with the second edition and I realized how much additional insight I would have missed had I not read the second edition. It is very well written, thought provoking and easy to follow and yet conveys many complex concepts. Congratulations to Ralph and Margy.
Rating:
Summary: As essential as the first edition
Review: I was undecided if I should buy this book after having read the first edition, but I'm happy I did.
The second edition updates many of the concepts contained in the first and includes some new chapters on hot topics like CRM and Telecommunications (which is the most important sector for dw at least here in Italy where I live).
I think that Kimball books are everything that's needed to design good, robust and flexible data warehouses, and this book maintains his high quality standards.
Rating:
Summary: Top-notch course in dimensional data warehouses
Review: If you want to understand data warehouse design either as user, architect or developer, you need to read this book cover to cover. Things I like about this book: * Coverage of all core principles in dimensional data modeling using examples. Ralph does not just lecture to you -- he shows you how to put it into practice * Coverage of a vast variety of domains. This alone makes the book a must-read * Recap of major principles at the end of the book to bring it all together * Excellent writing -- Ralph does not treat you like a dummy; neither does he assume that you have an IQ north of 200 * When you purchase this book, you are in effect purchasing a sliver of the combined knowledge of both authors in the data warehousing field. Highly recommended I implemented a data warehouse using some of these principles back in 1999. The project was a resounding success and is the most popular application in the financial services firm that I implemented it in. (Infact when I lost my job at an Internet company, they immediately offered me a job based on this implementation). The only sad part to the whole story is that we made a few mistakes in implementation that are now very difficult to correct because the data warehouse has become core to the business -- we have too many end-user applications riding on it!
Rating: 
Summary: This book rules!
Review: Listen Software Solutions: Kimball is considered by many to be the father of data warehousing. I learned how to set up an dimension and fact table from this book. This was cool and very different. I had a complete set of Oracle data warehousing books, but this book was the beginning. I've read many books on data warehousing that reference Kimball. I spent alot of time thinking about SQL pivots, group by. In fact, I wrote a simple OLAP tool that allow search through the dimension into the fact table. Kimball explains the purpose of data warehousing. He also helps one realize the planning necessary to manage a data warehouse. One thing is clear, data warehousing is important and companies are using them. One significant point he makes in the book is that relational databases were intended to make data retrieval simple. Wow, what happen? The most complex code I've ever written was for report, hugh SQL statements with numerous joins spanning numerous tables, functions, and subqueries. Additionally the book covers advanced topics like data marts, cubes, and snowflakes are described and illustrated effectively in the book. I enthusatically recommend this book. Data Warehousing is the next revolution in information processing. It was very exciting to see concept become reality, a 3-Dimensional look at your data. Most of my work was using Oracle and Oracle Discover. However, I did build a few cubes using Microsoft OLAP tools. This is the book to buy.
Rating:
Summary: If you dont have it you ain't a Datawarehouse developer
Review: The mandatory bible for any datawarehouse developer. Complete with examples and case studies, it will satisfy beginners as well as experienced professionals. I began with this.. and havent finished using it yet!
Rating:
Summary: Practical Wisdom
Review: There are a lot of data warehousing books out there that try to answer the question: 'Why'? Why data warehouses are needed to help businesses make better decisions - why the OLTP systems that run the business can't do this - and sometimes even why businesses ought to invest in data warehouses. These books were terrifically useful to us years ago, when we needed help (and scholarly footnotes) in our data warehouse project proposals. This book is not one of those - it is all about: 'How'. How to actually design and build a repository that will deliver real value to real people. In this reviewer's opinion, Ralph Kimball's many contributions related to the 'how' of data warehousing stand alone. An engineer trying to just-start data warehouse expertise would have to read Ralph's Data Warehouse Toolkit first edition, his Data Webhouse Toolkit... a bunch of Intelligence Enterprise magazine articles... AND lurk on the Data Warehousing List Server...for a few years (all terrific resources - by the way) - in order to stockpile the knowledge that is crisply presented here. No shortcuts that I can spot: all of the toughest dimensional design issues that I've tripped on - and can remember surfacing on in discussion groups over the past few years - are addressed in this significantly updated text. Not all of the solutions are 'pretty' - but it is clear that they thoughtfully address the problem. This rings true to my God-given 'bs' detector. The authors have been listening to and addressing the data warehouse community's 'pain' through periodicals and posts - but this book pulls these point solutions together very nicely. I learned a surprising number of really useful new techniques, and was genuinely enlightened by the 'Present Imperatives and Future Outlook' section. As in the first edition, there is minimal philosophical lecturing, and zero religion - perhaps the only reason to hesitate in describing it as the 'bible' of dimensional data warehousing. Authors of 'bibles' sometimes appear to be handcuffed by their need to be perceived as infallible - such is not the case here. Instead, we get generous helpings of real-world case studies - aptly used to illustrate a progressively more advanced series of design concepts. This style absolutely works for me. And I suspect that engineering mindsets typical of the folks that build these things will surely agree. In short, the Data Warehouse Toolkit Second Edition will significantly lighten the load of books that I carry between data warehouse engagements...
Rating:
Summary: Top-notch course in dimensional data warehouses
Review: This book deserves merely a one sentence review.
"Simply awesome" . As one of my friends had to say,
"We depend on Ralph Kimball for our livelihood"! This IS the book on Data warehousing. Follow this book
and you will never fail. I have had solutions to all
of my design issues from this one book. A must to every IT professional's personal library,
not necessarily restricted to DW professionals
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