With this textbook, Vaisman and Zimányi deliver excellent coverage of
data warehousing and business intelligence technologies ranging from the
most basic principles to recent findings and applications. To this end,
their work is structured into three parts. Part I describes "Fundamental
Concepts" including conceptual and logical data warehouse design, as
well as querying using MDX, DAX and SQL/OLAP. This part also covers data
analytics using Power BI and Analysis Services. Part II details
"Implementation and Deployment," including physical design, ETL and data
warehouse design methodologies. Part III covers "Advanced Topics" and it
is almost completely new in this second edition. This part includes
chapters with an in-depth coverage of temporal, spatial, and mobility
data warehousing. Graph data warehouses are also covered in detail using
Neo4j. The last chapter extensively studies big data management and the
usage of Hadoop, Spark, distributed, in-memory, columnar, NoSQL and
NewSQL database systems, and data lakes in the context of analytical
data processing.
As a key characteristic of the book, most of the topics are presented
and illustrated using application tools. Specifically, a case study
based on the well-known Northwind database illustrates how the concepts
presented in the book can be implemented using Microsoft Analysis
Services and Power BI. All chapters have been revised and updated to the
latest versions of the software tools used. KPIs and Dashboards are now
also developed using DAX and Power BI, and the chapter on ETL has been
expanded with the implementation of ETL processes in PostgreSQL. Review
questions and exercises complement each chapter to support comprehensive
student learning. Supplemental material to assist instructors using this
book as a course text is available online and includes electronic
versions of the figures, solutions to all exercises, and a set of slides
accompanying each chapter.
Overall, students, practitioners and researchers alike will find this
book the most comprehensive reference work on data warehouses, with key
topics described in a clear and educational style.
"I can only invite you to dive into the contents of the book, feeling
certain that once you have completed its reading (or maybe, targeted
parts of it), you will join me in expressing our gratitude to Alejandro
and Esteban, for providing such a comprehensive textbook for the field
of data warehousing in the first place, and for keeping it up to date
with the recent developments, in this current second edition."
From the foreword by Panos Vassiliadis, University of Ioannina, Greece.
