RE: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question for you| Outdated?

And that means we can all now ask Rachel our Datawarehousing questions and not RTFM :-)

Cheers

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Rachel Carmichael <wisernet100_at_yahoo.com>
Sent by: root_at_fatcity.com
23-05-2002 11:13 PM
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        Subject:        RE: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question for you| Outdated?


Dennis,

I have on my desk, all in varying stages of being read: 
Inmon's book Building the Data Warehouse (very understandable)

Kimball's articles from his site and from the Intelligententerprise.com
site (somewhat understandable, I think you need a base from which to
read his articles). His books are on order and should arrive today

Tim Gorman's book Essential Oracle8i Data Warehousing (this I haven't
started, as Tim tells me to read it AFTER I have a basic understanding
of data warehousing)

The Oracle8i Data Warehousing documentation (actually pretty readable
and understandable)

Ya think I might be over-researching this stuff and panicking a bit?

Rachel

--- DENNIS WILLIAMS <DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM> wrote:


> Ian, 

> 

>   - In the beginning was the data warehouse and yeah it was good. It

> would

> solve all corporate problems and would encompass all corporate data

> so all

> corporate minions would see the same data.

>   - But yeah it took so long to create the corporate data warehouse

> that

> management despaired and canceled the project. Or by the time the

> monster

> data warehouse came blinking and straining into the daylight all the

> users

> said that the company had evolved in the meanwhile and the warehouse

> was

> obsolete.

>   - So data warehouses gained a bad rep from corporate managers and

> yeah

> none would fain to propose the conception of a data warehouse for

> fear of

> castigation.

>   - Then some marketing interns bribed a DBA to send them data

> weekly. And

> they stored this data in a database and lo, their superiors were

> impressed.

>   - Everyone was in awe of the marketing database, but none dared

> tarnish it

> by speaking the name which shall not be mentioned, so it was

> christened a

> "data mart".

>   - And lo, the data marts multiplied and were fruitful. And the DBA

> cursed

> the day she was weak and did give data to the marketing interns.

>   - Then another prophet did arise and did challenge the prophet

> Kimball.

> His name was Inmon. And he did claim to be the progenitor of data

> warehouses. And therefore all should do data warehousing his way and

> use his

> terms.

>   - And great confusion arose over the land. And many debates ensued,

> including some face to face between Inmon and Kimball. And terms such

> as

> Operational Data Store (ODS) were bandied about.

>   - And some said that queries against the ODS were acceptable and

> others

> deemed them forbidden. And some said that if it looks like a data

> warehouse

> and smells like a data warehouse it verily indeed is a data

> warehouse.

>   - And consultants warred against consultants and did call the other

> consultants ignoramuses in front of management such that nobody knew

> what

> anybody was talking about.

>   - And the DBAs said that creating a data warehouse or data mart was

> not

> nearly as hard as figuring out what to call it.

> 

> The moral of the story is to figure out what you need to do and be

> aware

> that different authors use the same terms for different purposes and

> coin

> their own terms. Personally, I have understood everything that

> Kimball has

> written and have never been able to read one of Inmon's articles to

> the end.

> But maybe that is just me.

> Dennis Williams

> DBA

> Lifetouch, Inc.

> dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

> 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 2:38 PM

> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> Outdated?

> 

> 

> Ian,

> 

> Good question.  I think that I've seen more recenct references in

> articles

> that state the current thinking of DW/DM.  I'm sure that I've seen

> Inmon

> refer to them that way, or maybe it was Richard Winter?

> 

> Anyway, I guess that part is a bit dated.  There is so much good 

> information

> in that book though, that it's still worth its weight in gold.  You

> won't 

> find too many

> publications for $60 that will take you step by step through building

> an 

> entire

> data warehouse, including the infrastructure.

> 

> Jared

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> "MacGregor, Ian A." <ian_at_SLAC.Stanford.EDU>

> Sent by: root_at_fatcity.com

> 05/21/2002 05:48 PM

> Please respond to ORACLE-L

> 

> 

>         To:     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>

>         cc: 

>         Subject:        RE: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question

> for

> you| Outdated?

> 

> 

> I am new to his books, three chapters in.  The first release of the

> "Data 

> Warehouse Toolkit"  defines a data warehouse much as a data mart is

> today. 

>  Today we think of a data warehouse as having a highly normalized 

> structure which stores information from various sources.  We build

> data 

> marts with structures optimized for querying; e.g., star schemas,

> from the 

>  warehouse.  Kimball writes of the warehouse itself being based on a

> star 

> schema.

> 

> The term data warehouse has not been immutable over the years.  It

> was 

> probably defined exactly as he has done when the book was first

> written. 

> Do his new books redefine "data warehouse"? 

> 

> Ian MacGregor

> Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

> ian_at_SLAC.Stanford.edu

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:16 PM

> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> 

> 

> I second Jared's opinion. Ralph's books are clear and easy to read.

> This 

> is

> the fundamentals of data warehousing. 

> Dennis Williams

> DBA

> Lifetouch, Inc.

> dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

> 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:30 PM

> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> 

> 

> Yup, $60, and worth every penny.

> 

> It may be 4 years old, but the information is still pertinent.

> 

> Jared

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> Joe Testa <jtesta_at_dmc-it.com>

> Sent by: root_at_fatcity.com

> 05/20/2002 05:53 PM

> Please respond to ORACLE-L

> 

> 

>         To:     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L 

> <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>

>         cc: 

>         Subject:        Re: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question

> for

> you

> 

> 

> looks like published aug of 98 for that book?, like $60?

> 

> joe

> 

> 

> Jared.Still_at_radisys.com wrote:

> 

> >Joe,

> >

> >Add a generated PK to the time dimension.  The PK is stored

> >as an FK in the fact table.

> >

> >That way you can select from the time dimension by year, day, qtr, 

> >whatever,

> >and easily pick out the correct fact table rows.

> >

> >"The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit" includes a spreadsheet to

> generate

> 

=== message truncated ===


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