Microsoft? OLAP Solutions [With *]

This book is what you really want if you are serious about developing using Microsoft Analysis Services. Today with Microsoft Analysis Services ranking as the most widely implemented OLAP/analysis solution this is the best source to get started on Microsoft OLAP services from none other than Erik Thomsen the OLAP guru and George Spofford. The authors were kind enough to answer readers queries by email that makes a big difference to somebody getting into a new technology. The book points the strengths and limitations thereby preparing you to have workarounds for the limitations. I rate 5 stars for the completeness, presentation, honesty and responsiveness of the authors. They do not try to sell a product to you but provide the technology - a very small breed you find these days you will bang your head for days with a product for a limitation that was not known and later learn to live with it but here you know upfront what they are and how to avoid them through proper design and implementation. My only request to the authors when Microsoft SQL Server - Yukon the next major release of SQL Server which will be available in 3 months time will redefine and make SQL Server more stronger in database, OLAP, ETL & data mining segments I would appreciate if the authors post a electronic appendixes to the book to explain the new features in Analysis services and MDX in the new release of SQL Server.

This book is for the intermediate OLAP developer/DBA who wishes to know how to do more with OLAP and delve into it's capabilities in more detail. In relation to other books I've seen, this book goes into more detail on calculated members; the internal structure of OLAP; and has a great MDX reference with diagrams of function behaviors. I bought it to help me deal with my application solution and it is very useful since it has many examples and real-world descriptions. It also has 2 case studies that come in handy to the beginner and intermediate OLAP devotee. If you are looking for enhancing your OLAP analysis capabilites, this book is for you.

Having looked at the three books out right now, this one definitely provides the most in the way of OLAP designer and DBA information. It has a ton of MDX information, including a clear introduction and a lot of illustrated examples (more full queries and fewer snippets might have been better), and has a chapter on actually using MDX to solve a lot of different types of query and calculation needs. The authors take the time to describe a lot of otherwise undocumented behavior- for example how NULLs really get dealt with (as opposed to how the OLE DB spec says). It's also focused entirely on the OLAP side- other technologies like DTS are found in other sources, but I'll admit that I'd rather have more books that cover their topics deeply than fewer books that cover everything shallowly.This book is definitely geared towards someone who already understands OLAP- I would have foundered on the OLAP generalities, except the authors state up-front that Erik Thomsen's "OLAP Solutions" is how they prefer to introduce OLAP, so I used that as well. (Not a bad choice, either!)When I was developing my first MS OLAP cubes, I found the Maintaining Applications chapter handy for planning their later life, but I wish that changing warehouse dimensions were dealt with. I also found myself wanting more programming examples, but at 500 pages plus CD-ROM there's a lot already in here. In short, a total focus on the OLAP, a clear description of how to do what you can do and work around what is hard, and the best MDX guide I've seen. Not utterly perfect, but still great!

OLAP is a very large topic by itself. No single book can adequately cover everything that everyone wants. The authors did an extremely good job of covering the topic while adding enough detail so that both novices and advanced users will find it extremely useful. The beginner may need to read it several times to grasp the concepts, but it is definitely worth the time and money. I haven't found anything even close that covers MS OLAP Services. If you are using OLAP Services or plan to, you need this book.

I attended the Microsoft Official Curriculum for DW using SQL 7 and this book provides much more information about creating and using Datawarehouses. The book provides ample coverage of MDX, something the OLAP docs and the class were lacking in. It also provides good coverage for creating external functions and provides informative information about the different storage and design mechanism for DWs. Just took the DW beta exam and this book did a decent job of preparing me for the exam. Still need real world experience creating DW though.