Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005: And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005: And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005: And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005: And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform ReviewApplied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005, at a first glance, appears to be THE book to get on SSAS 2005. Unfortunately, the beauty is only cover-deep.
While the author clearly has "encyclopaedic" knowledge of the product suite, examples I came across were incomplete and quite frankly frustrating. For example, in Chapter 6, the author introduces us to the concept of using dimension definition templates for creating our Inventory cube "top-down" (meaning, without a data source)... while the instructions are clear on how to use a template to satisfy our Product dimension requirement (using the "Product" template), the author provides absolutely NO indication on which template we should use to create our Location template-- all the author writes here is "...Follow similar steps to create the Location dimension". That's it, nothing else (Chapter 6, Page 200)... no explanation is provided as to whether we reuse the Product template or not.
This book has many other examples of such dead-ends (half-truths and other misleading information). For instance, in Chapter 5, Page 188, on the topic of optimizing performance by caching linked object queries, the author writes: "...both linked dimension and measure groups expose RefreshPolicy and RefreshInterval properties which can be set at design time....". However, when I went through the associated example, I found that only linked measure groups expose said properties in support of linked object caching.
Once again, I do share the enthusiasm of the other reviewers, and have (to be fair) found some solid value in this book in explaining some of the new concepts related to the UDM, and the attribute-centric approach to creating dimension hierarchies (among other things). I also find the greatest value in a technical book to be the balance between clear explanations of new and/or thorny concepts (which this book does rather well) and clear examples for the reader to work through (which this book often does not). Nevertheless, I question the integrity of any reviewer quick to give a book 5 stars without actually reading through, actually trying each and every example, and rating the work objectively. Granted: no first version of any technical book can be perfect, but to quickly rush to awarding a book 5 stars is a dodgy practice at best-- perhaps indeed luring us to purchase a book we may later regret.
Caveat empor. 2.5 stars for this book....Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005: And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform OverviewKnowledge is power! As its name suggests, the promise of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 is to promote better data analytics by giving information workers the right tool to analyze consistent, timely, and reliable data. Empowered with Analysis Services and Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform, you are well positioned to solve the perennial problem with data-that there is too much of it and finding the right information is often difficult, if not impossible.Applied Micrisoft Analysis Services 2005 shows database administrators and developers how to build complete OLAP solutions with Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 and Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform. Database administrators will learn how to design and manage sophisticated OLAP cubes that provide rich data analytics and data mining services.The book gives developers the necessary background to extend UDM with custom programming logic, in the form of MDX expressions, scripts and .NET code. It teaches them how to implement a wide range of reporting applications that integrate with Analysis Services, Reporting Services, and Microsoft Office.This book doesn't assume any prior experience with OLAP and Microsoft Analysis Services. It is designed as an easy-to-follow guide where each chapter builds upon the previous to implement the components of the innovative Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) in a chronological order. New concepts are introduced with step-by-step instructions and hands-on demos.What's Inside:o Design sophisticated UDM modelso Build ETL processes with SSISo Implement data mining taskso Enrich UDM programmatically with MDXo Extend UDM with SSAS stored procedures o Create rich end-user model o Optimize Analysis Services storage and processing o Implement dynamic security o Build custom OLAP clients o Author standard and ad-hoc reports with SSRS o Build Office-based BI applications and dashboards o and much more

Want to learn more information about Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005: And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now