Data Warehousing Fundamentals: A Comprehensive Guide for IT Professionals

Description

FOREWORD
I am delighted to share my thoughts with information technology professionals about my
faculty colleague Paulraj Ponniah’s textbook Data Warehousing Fundamentals. In the
spring of 1998, Raritan Valley Community College decided to offer a course on data
warehousing. This was mainly through the initiative of Dr. Ponniah, who had been teaching
our database design and development course for several years. It was very difficult to
find a good textbook for a college course on data warehousing. We had to settle for a book
that was not quite suitable. In order to make the course effective, Paul had to supplement
the book with his own data warehousing seminar materials. Our students, primarily IT
professionals from local industries, received the course very well. Now this magnificent
textbook on data warehousing comes to you through the foresight and diligent work of Dr.
Ponniah, along with the insightful support of the publishers, John Wiley and Sons.
This book has numerous features that make it a winner:

The order of topics is very logical.

The choice of topics is quite appropriate for a comprehensive introductory book.
The coverage of topics is also very well balanced.

The subject matter is logically structured, with chapters covering essential components
of the data warehousing field. The sequence of topics is well planned to provide
a seamless transition from design to implementation.

Within each chapter, the continuity of topics is excellent.

None of the topics included in the textbook is superfluous to the basic objectives.

The material included is technically correct and up-to-date. The figures appropriately
enhance and amplify the topics.

Ample review questions and exercises can be found at the end of each chapter. This
is something lacking in most books on data warehousing. These review questions
and exercises are pedagogically sound. They are designed to test the knowledge, not
the ignorance, of the reader.

Dr. Ponniah’s writing style is clear and concise. Because of the simplicity and completeness
of this book, I believe it will find a definite market niche, particularly among
college students, not-so-technically savvy IT people, and data warehousing mavens.
In spite of a plethora of books on data warehousing by luminaries such as Kimball, Inmon,
Barquin, and Singh, this book fulfills a special purpose, and information technology
professionals will definitely benefit from reading it. In addition, the book should be well
received by college professors for use by students in their data warehousing courses. To
put it succinctly, this book fills a void in the midst of plenty.
In summary, Dr. Ponniah has produced a winner for both students and experienced IT
professionals. As someone who has been in IT education for many years, I certainly recommend
this book to college professors and seminar leaders for their data warehousing
courses.
PRATAP P. REDDY, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of CIS Department
Raritan Valley Community College
North Branch, New Jersey

PREFACE
THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU
Are you an information technology professional watching, with great interest, the massive
unfolding of the data warehouse movement? Are you contemplating a move into this new
area of opportunity? Are you a systems analyst, programmer, data analyst, database administrator,
project leader, or software engineer eager to grasp the fundamentals of data
warehousing? Do you wonder how many different books you may have to read to learn the
basics? Are you lost in the maze of the literature and products on the subject? Do you
wish for a single publication on data warehousing, clearly and specifically designed for IT
professionals? Do you need a textbook that helps you learn the fundamentals in sufficient
depth—not more, not less? If you answered “yes” to any of the above, this book is written
specially for you.
This is the one definitive book on data warehousing clearly intended for IT professionals.
The organization and presentation of the book are specially tuned for IT professionals.
This book does not presume to target anyone and everyone remotely interested in the subject
for some reason or another, but is written to address the specific needs of IT professionals
like you. It does not tend to emphasize certain aspects and neglect other critical
ones. The book takes you over the entire landscape of data warehousing.
How can this book be exactly suitable for IT professionals? As a veteran IT professional
with wide and intensive industry experience, as a successful database and data warehousing
consultant for many years, and as one who teaches data warehousing fundamentals
in the college classroom and in public seminars, I have come to appreciate the precise
needs of IT professionals, and in every chapter I have incorporated these requirements of
the IT community.

THE SCENARIO
Why are companies rushing into data warehousing? Why is there a tremendous surge in
interest? Data warehousing is no longer a purely novel idea just for research and experimentation.
It has become a mainstream phenomenon. True, the data warehouse is not in
every doctor’s office yet, but neither is it confined to only high-end businesses. More than
half of all U.S. companies and a large percentage of worldwide businesses have made a
commitment to data warehousing.
In every industry across the board, from retail chain stores to financial institutions,
from manufacturing enterprises to government departments, and from airline companies
to utility businesses, data warehousing is revolutionizing the way people perform business
analysis and make strategic decisions. Every company that has a data warehouse is realizing
the enormous benefits translated into positive results at the bottom line. These companies,
now incorporating Web-based technologies, are enhancing the potential for greater
and easier delivery of vital information.
Over the past five years, hundreds of vendors have flooded the market with numerous
data warehousing products. Vendor solutions and products run the gamut of data warehousing—
data modeling, data acquisition, data quality, data analysis, metadata, and so
on. The market is already large and continues to grow.
CHANGED ROLE OF IT
In this scenario, information technology departments of all progressive companies perceive
a radical change in their roles. IT is no longer required to create every report and
present every screen for providing information to the end-users. IT is now charged with
the building of information delivery systems and letting the end-users themselves retrieve
information in innovative ways for analysis and decision making. Data warehousing is
proving to be just that type of successful information delivery system.
IT professionals responsible for building data warehouses need to revise their mindsets
about building applications. They have to understand that a data warehouse is not a onesize-
fits-all proposition; they must get a clear understanding of the extraction of data from
source systems, data transformations, data staging, data warehouse architecture, infrastructure,
and the various methods of information delivery.
In short, IT professionals, like you, must get a strong grip on the fundamentals of data
warehousing.
WHAT THIS BOOK CAN DO FOR YOU
The book is comprehensive and detailed. You will be able to study every significant topic
in planning, requirements, architecture, infrastructure, design, data preparation, information
delivery, deployment, and maintenance. It is specially designed for IT professionals;
you will be able to follow the presentation easily because it is built upon the foundation of
your background as an IT professional, your knowledge, and the technical terminology familiar
to you. It is organized logically, beginning with an overview of concepts, moving
on to planning and requirements, then to architecture and infrastructure, on to data design,
then to information delivery, and concluding with deployment and maintenance. This progression is typical of what you are most familiar with in your experience and day-to-day
work.
The book provides an interactive learning experience. It is not a one-way lecture. You
participate through the review questions and exercises at the end of each chapter. For each
chapter, the objectives set the theme and the summary provides a list of the topics covered.
You can relate each concept and technique to the data warehousing industry and
marketplace. You will notice a substantial number of industry examples. Although intended
as a first course on fundamentals, this book provides sufficient coverage of each topic
so that you can comfortably proceed to the next step of specialization for specific roles in
a data warehouse project.
Featuring all the significant topics in appropriate measure, this book is eminently suitable
as a textbook for serious self-study, a college course, or a seminar on the essentials. It
provides an opportunity for you to become a data warehouse expert.
I acknowledge my indebtedness to the authors listed in the reference section at the end
of the book. Their insights and observations have helped me cover adequately the topics. I
must also express my appreciation to my students and professional colleagues. Our interactions
have enabled me to shape this textbook according to the needs of IT professionals.
PAULRAJ PONNIAH, Ph.D.
Edison, New Jersey
June 2001

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