The Data Warehouse Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Building Dimensional Data Warehouses

". . . one of the definitive books of our industry. If you take the time to read only one professional book, make it this book." -W. H. Inmon

One of the most dramatic new developments in database design, the dimensional data warehouse is a powerful database model that.significantly enhances managers' ability to quickly analyze large, multidimensional data sets. Written by the leading proponent of this revolutionary new approach, this valuable book/CD toolkit outfits you with all the nuts-and-bolts information you need to design, build, manage, and use dimensional data warehouses for virtually any type of business application, as well as software for querying dimensional data warehouses.

Employing many real-life case studies of data warehouses, Ralph Kimball provides clear-cut guidelines on how to model data and design data warehouses to support advanced multidimensional decision support systems. Beginning with the relatively simple example of a data warehouse for a grocery store, he progresses, step-by-step, through an increasingly complex array of business applications in retail, manufacturing, banking, insurance, subscriptions, and airline reservations. By the end of the book, you will have mastered the full range of powerful techniques for creating, controlling, and navigating dimensional business databases that are easy to understand and navigate.

On the CD-ROM you'll find:
* Software for querying dimensional data warehouses.
* Working models of all the databases described in the book.

RALPH KIMBALL currently designs large data warehouses for a living, in addition to teaching and consulting. He also writes the Data Warehouse Architect column for DBMS magazine and was co-inventor of the Xerox Star workstation, the first commercial product to use mice, icons, and windows. Dr. Kimball was vice president of applications at Metaphor Computer Systems, and founder and CEO of Red Brick Systems. He earned his PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University.