Report Portal

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Books

FREE SSAS Tabular/Multidimensional Books/EBooks/PDFs

Book Links
SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services - Tabular Modeling   EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content
QuickStart: Learn DAX Basics in 30 Minutes    EPUBMOBIPDF | Source content
Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) Reference  EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content
SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services - Multidimensional Modeling  EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content
SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services - Data Mining   EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Multidimensional Performance and Operations Guide   EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content 1 | Source content 2
 Multidimensional Expression (MDX) Reference  EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

 

SSAS Tabular Books (2012)

Book

Amazon links by country

Description

Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development

Amazon US

Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development by Simon Lidberg

  • Learn how to develop a complete business intelligence solution using SQL Server 2012
  • Understand the difference between tabular in-memory models and OLAP cubes, and which to use where and when
  • Add advanced features such as key performance indicators (KPIs) and calculated measures to your business intelligence model
  • Understand the use of cubes in a modern business intelligence solution
  • Go from a complete beginner to a developer who can build real-world projects through the use of easy step-by-step examples
Microsoft Tabular Modeling Cookbook

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Microsoft Tabular Modeling Cookbook by Paul te Braak

Over 50 tips and tricks for analytical modeling using Business Intelligence Semantic Models with SQL Server 2012 and PowerPivot

Overview

  • Develop tabular models for personal use
  • Learn about the modeling techniques which are required to overcome commonly encountered problems and master advanced modeling scenarios
  • Understand the techniques required to promote personal models to corporate enterprise environments and manage the models in a corporate environment
  • Learn tips and tricks for querying tabular models and learn how to access the data within them for dynamic reporting including the development of interactive workbooks
Instant Creating Data Models with PowerPivot How-to

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Instant Creating Data Models with PowerPivot How-to by Leo Taehyung Lee

Build better business intelligence with this practical guide to creating Excel data models with PowerPivot

Overview

  • Learn something new in an Instant! A short, fast, focused guide delivering immediate results
  • Detailed, step-by-step interactive tutorial guide to learning PowerPivot
  • Carefully organized topics for users of all levels
  • Learn how to make your data accessible and attractive

In Detail

Microsoft PowerPivot is a free software designed to enhance Microsoft Excel. It allows the user to make extensive use of his/her computer’s powers to draw data from various sources, do analysis across millions of rows of data, and present results in a very unique format.

Instant Creating Data Models with PowerPivot How-to to is a concise and to-the-point guide that helps you get a jump start on using this strong business intelligence tool, while still working in an environment similar to Excel. You will begin with data generation and manipulation, learning a new feature at each step by building onto the old file, and ultimately creating a comprehensive file.

Instant Creating Data Models with PowerPivot How-to to will guide the user through database installation, importing data from various sources, creating pivot charts and tables, utilizing a unique feature of PowerPivot called slicers,adding custom columns, and setting custom relationships between data to generate the ultimate customized dataset for analysis. By the end of the book and all the sections of Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel, the reader will be fully experienced and ready to utilize this powerful software.

What you will learn from this book

 

  • Install a database and import/export data freely
  • Collect and combine data across various sources and formats
  • Understand relationships between various data
  • Develop complex tables and models for future analysis
  • Design meaningful charts and tables easy for everyone to understand
  • Write custom codes to modify data to a required form
  • Extend PowerPivot with external programs for further collaboration

 

Excel 2013 Data Models

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Microsoft Excel 2013 - Building Data Models with PowerPivot by Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo

Your guide to quickly turn data into results.

Transform your skills, data, and business—and create your own BI solutions using software you already know and love: Microsoft Excel. Two business intelligence (BI) experts take you inside PowerPivot functionality for Excel® 2013, with a focus on real world scenarios, problem-solving, and data modeling. You'll learn how to quickly turn mass quantities of data into meaningful information and on-the-job results—no programming required!

  • Understand the differences between PowerPivot for Self Service BI and SQL Server Analysis Services for Corporate BI
  • Extend your existing data-analysis skills to create your own BI solutions
  • Quickly manipulate large data sets, often in millions of rows
  • Perform simple-to-sophisticated calculations and what-if analysis
  • Create complex reporting systems with data modeling and Data Analysis Expressions
  • Share your results effortlessly across your organization using Microsoft SharePoint®

 

 

Professional SSAS 2012

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services with MDX and DAX by Sivakumar Harinath, Ronald Pihlgren, Denny Guang-Yeu Lee, John Sirmon and Robert M. Bruckner

Understand Microsoft's dramatically updated new release of its premier toolset for business intelligence

The first major update to Microsoft's state-of-the-art, complex toolset for business intelligence (BI) in years is now available and what better way to master it than with this detailed book from key members of the product's development team? If you're a database or data warehouse developer, this is the expert resource you need to build full-scale, multi-dimensional, database applications using Microsoft's new SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services and related tools.

Discover how to solve real-world BI problems by leveraging a slew of powerful new Analysis Services features and capabilities. These include the new DAX language, which is a more user-friendly version of MDX; PowerPivot, a new tool for performing simplified analysis of data; BISM, Microsoft's new Business Intelligence Semantic Model; and much more.

 

  • Serves as an authoritative guide to Microsoft's new SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services BI product and is written by key members of the Microsoft Analysis Services product development team
  • Covers SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services, a major new release with a host of powerful new features and capabilities
  • Topics include using the new DAX language, a simplified, more user-friendly version of MDX; PowerPivot, a new tool for performing simplified analysis of data; BISM, Microsoft's new Business Intelligence Semantic Model; and a new, yet-to-be-named BI reporting tool
  • Explores real-world scenarios to help developers build comprehensive solutions

Get thoroughly up to speed on this powerful new BI toolset with the timely and authoritative Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services with MDX.

 

BISM Tabular

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services: The BISM Tabular Model by Marco Russo, Alberto Ferrari and Chris Webb

Analyze tabular data using the BI Semantic Model (BISM) in Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Analysis Services—and discover a simpler method for creating corporate-level BI solutions. Led by three BI experts, you’ll learn how to build, deploy, and query a BISM tabular model with step-by-step guides, examples, and best practices. This hands-on book shows you how the tabular model’s in-memory database enables you to perform rapid analytics—whether you’re a professional BI developer new to Analysis Services or familiar with its multidimensional model.

2012-08-12 - Review by Javier Guillen
2012-08-17 - Review by Vincent Rainardi
2012-11-16 - Review by Jenny Salvo
2012-11-26 - Review by Teo Lachev

Applied SSAS

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services: Tabular Modeling by Teo Lachev

An insightful tour that provides an authoritative yet independent view of this exciting technology, this guide introduces the Tabular side of the innovative Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) that promotes rapid professional and self-service BI. Business analysts and power users will learn how to integrate data from multiple data sources, implement personal BI applications with Excel, and deploy them to SharePoint. BI professionals and database administrators will discover how to build Tabular models that deliver supreme performance with large data volumes, and how to implement a wide range of solutions for the entire spectrum of personal-team-organizational BI needs. Ideal for experienced BI professionals and beginners, this book features step-by-step instructions and demos for integrating data from various data sources and gaining insights from the data in reports and dashboards.

Release date: March 1, 2012

Sample chapter: Introducing Business Intelligence Semantic Model

Link to video related to this book...

DAX Formulas for PowerPivot

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

DAX Formulas for PowerPivot: The Excel Pro's Guide to Mastering DAX by Rob Collie

Microsoft PowerPivot is a free add-on to Excel from Microsoft that allows users to produce new kinds of reports and analyses that were simply impossible before, and this book is the first to tackle DAX formulas, the core capability of PowerPivot, from the perspective of the Excel audience. Written by the world’s foremost PowerPivot blogger and practitioner, the book’s concepts and approach are introduced in a simple, step-by-step manner tailored to the learning style of Excel users everywhere. The techniques presented allow users to produce, in hours or even minutes, results that formerly would have taken entire teams weeks or months to produce and include lessons on the difference between calculated columns and measures, how formulas can be reused across reports of completely different shapes, how to merge disjointed sets of data into unified reports, how to make certain columns in a pivot behave as if the pivot were filtered while other columns do not, and how to create time-intelligent calculations in pivot tables such as “Year over Year” and “Moving Averages” whether they use a standard, fiscal, or a complete custom calendar. The “pattern-like” techniques and best practices contained in this book have been developed and refined over two years of onsite training with Excel users around the world, and the key lessons from those seminars costing thousands of dollars per day are now available to within the pages of this easy-to-follow guide.

 

2012-11-17 Review by Dan English

2012-11-29 Review by Paul Turley

 

MDX Books (2005/2008/2008R2/2012)

Book

Amazon links by country

Description

MDX with SSAS 2012 Cookbook

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

MDX with SSAS 2012 Cookbook by Sherry Li, Tomislav Piasevoli

69 practical recipes to analyze multidimensional data stored in SSAS 2012 cubes, using high-performance MDX calculations and flexible MDX queries

Overview

  • A wide range of time-related, context-aware, and business-related calculations
  • Combine MDX with utility dimensions
  • Illustration of techniques to enrich business intelligence solutions, aided by practical, hands-on Cookbook recipes
MDX 2012

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Exploring MDX Using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (Volume 1) by Ashim Mazumder

This book is for anybody who wants to learn MDX language. We have assumed that you have got some relational database design and SQL language experience, and know basic concepts of SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). Throughout the book, we used practice database ?Adventure works?, which is very popular among users of Microsoft SQL Server environment. Inside this book you will find: - More than 350 MDX queries. - MDX functions are explained with simple examples. - Some topics like ?All Level? explained in detail with various examples. - Detail analysis of each component of queries. MDX query architecture explained in detail ? with examples. - Contains simplified definition of functions with examples and their possible values. - Explains how to improve performance of MDX queries and best practices. This book is an important and valuable reference for those interested in learning and improving their MDX skill.

Image

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL ServerTM Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion Essbase, 2nd Edition, by George Spofford, Sivakumar Harinath, Christopher Webb

Serving as both a tutorial and a reference guide to the MDX (Multidimensional Expressions) query language, this book shows data warehouse developers what they need to know to build effective multidimensional data warehouses After a brief overview of the MDX language and a look at how it is used to access data in sophisticated, multidimensional databases and data warehousing, the authors move directly to providing practical examples of MDX in use New material covers changes in the MDX language itself as well as major changes in its implementation with the latest software releases of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion Essbase Also covers more advanced techniques, like aggregation, query templates, and MDX optimization, and shows users what they need to know to access and analyze data to make better business decisions.

Note from ssas-info.com: Must have book for anyone learning MDX.

Image

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Fast Track to MDX, by Mark Whitehorn, Robert Zare, Mosha Pasumansky

Fast Track to MDX gives you all the necessary background to let you write useful, powerful MDX expressions and introduces the most frequently used MDX functions and constructs. No prior knowledge is assumed and examples are used throughout the book to rapidly develop your MDX skills to the point where you can solve real business problems.

Note from ssas-info.com: Altough this book for for learning MDX in Analysis Services 2000, I still recommend to buy it. It will give you good background on MDX language.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) by Bryan Smith and C.Ryan Clay

  • Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 18, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0735626189
  • ISBN-13: 978-0735626188
  • Table of contents...

    practical-mdx-queries

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Practical MDX Queries by Art Tennick

    More than 300 ready-to-use, powerful MDX queries

    Practical MDX Queries shows how to use Multi-Dimensional Expressions (MDX) to extract business intelligence from multi-dimensional cubes within Microsoft's Business Intelligence stack. The book’s approach is solutions-based and hands-on, containing more than 300 downloadable MDX queries that can be immediately applied across a wide variety of business intelligence-related problems. It begins with fundamental principles and simple queries and rapidly progresses to complex and sophisticated queries. The book is structured as follows:

    • Query Overview: Introduction and description of query and its use
    • Syntax: Complete syntax
    • Result: Illustrates the data returned from the Analysis Services cube by the query
    • Analysis: Analysis of the results and tips for customization

    The book emphasizes MDX for use within Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)—however, the techniques and queries can also be used across Excel, Excel Services in SharePoint, Reporting Services (SSRS), Integration Services (SSIS), Performance Point Server dashboards, Winforms and Webforms, and in a variety of third-party front-ends.

    Practical MDX Queries covers
    The Basics; Dimensions and Hierarchies; Slicing and Dicing; Sorting; KPIs; Empty Cells and Ranges; Calculations and Sets; Time Dimension; Time Dimension Calculations; Families and Navigation; Set Manipulation; Problems and Common Errors

    mdx-cookbook

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook by Tomislav Piasevoli

    Overview of MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook: RAW

    • Enrich your BI solutions by implementing best practice MDX calculations
    • Master a wide range of time-related, context-aware, and business-related calculations
    • Enhance your solutions by combining MDX with utility dimensions
    • Become skilled in making reports concise
    • Learn how to optimize, dissect, and debug your MDX calculations
    • Maximize your learning with detailed explanations following each solution
    • Packed with practical, hands-on cookbook recipes, illustrating the techniques to enrich your Business Intelligence solutions
    2011-Sep-20 Review by Derek Goodridge

     

    SQL Server Analysis Services 2005/2008 Books (2005/2008/2008R2/2012)

    Book

    Amazon links by country

    Description

    pro-ssas2008

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Pro SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services by Philo Janus, Guy Fouche

    Every business has a reams of business data locked away in databases, business systems, and spreadsheets. While you may be able to build some reports by pulling a few of these repositories together, actually performing any kind of analysis on the data that runs your business can range from problematic to impossible. Pro SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services will show you how to pull that data together and present it for reporting and analysis in a way that makes the data accessible to business users, instead of needing to rely on the IT department every time someone needs a different report.

    • Accessible–With a single author's voice, this book conducts a guided tour through the technology that makes it easy to dive into.
    • Solution–oriented–While technically deep, the goal is to focus on practical application of the technologies instead of acting as a technical manual.
    • ComprehensiveThis book covers every aspect of Analysis Services and ancillary technologies to enable you to make the most of SQL Server.

    What you'll learn

    • Understand the importance of OLAP and Analysis Services technologies.
    • Build cubes and dimensions that let you get business value out of large volumes of data.
    • Learn the fundamentals of MDX–the query language for advanced analysis.
    • Apply ancillary aspects of SSAS: KPIs, perspectives, and calculated members.
    • Apply basic data mining concepts–identify answers to questions you weren't even aware you should ask.
    • Learn the various ways to consume Analysis Services data (Reporting Services, Excel, and ProClarity).

    Who is this book for?

    Pro SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services is aimed at developers who want to take advantage of SQL Server's built-in business intelligence functionality to mine their data and produce reports that can drive business forward in right and profitable directions. The book is secondarily aimed at database administrators charged with supporting Analysis Services solutions.

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, by Edward Melomed, Irina Gorbach, Alexander Berger, Py Bateman

    Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services is definitive guide to programming Analysis Services 2005. It will give you unparalleled insight into the ways in which Analysis Services functions straight from the members of the Analysis Services team at Microsoft . It not only explains ways to use Analysis Services 2005 to design and create multidimensional objects, databases, dimensions, cubes, but it also provides invaluable information about the reasons behind design decision taken by the development team.

    Note from ssas-info.com: Highly recommended.

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Professional SQL ServerTM Analysis Services 2005 with MDX, by Sivakumar Harinath, Stephen R. Quinn

    Written by members of the Analysis Services product team at Microsoft, this timely and authoritative book shows you how to use Analysis Services along with SQL Server components like Integration Services, Data Mining, and Reporting Services to provide comprehensive, end-to-end solutions. Ultimately you'll learn to solve business problems by leveraging all the tools that SQL Server 2005 has to offer.

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 : And Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform by Teo Lachev

    Applied Micrisoft Analysis Services 2005 shows database administrators and developers how to build complete OLAP solutions with Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 and Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform. Database administrators will learn how to design and manage sophisticated OLAP cubes that provide rich data analytics and data mining services.

    The book gives developers the necessary background to extend UDM with custom programming logic, in the form of MDX expressions, scripts and .NET code. It teaches them how to implement a wide range of reporting applications that integrate with Analysis Services, Reporting Services, and Microsoft Office.

    This book doesn't assume any prior experience with OLAP and Microsoft Analysis Services. It is designed as an easy-to-follow guide where each chapter builds upon the previous to implement the components of the innovative Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) in a chronological order. New concepts are introduced with step-by-step instructions and hands-on demos.

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services by Reed Jacobson, Stacia Misner, Hitachi Consulting

    Your hands-on guide to learning Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Microsofts customizable analysis solution for business data modeling and interpretation. Analysis Services is a powerful tool for business intelligence, so understanding the essentialshow to create a cube, as well as how to deploy, customize, and extend the basic calculationsis critical to harnessing the full benefits of SQL Server. This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to get started, how to build scalable analytical applications, and how to use and administer advanced features. Interactivity features (enhanced in SQL Server 2005), data translation, and security are also covered in detail. With Step by Step, you work at your own pace through hands-on, learn-by-doing exercises. Whether youre a beginning programmer or new to this version of the technology, youll understand the fundamental techniques for using Analysis Services. A companion CD includes data sets and sample code.

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 by Brian Larson

    Put timely, mission-critical information in the hands of employees across your organization using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and the comprehensive information in this unique resource. Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 shows you, step-by-step, how to author, customize, and distribute information that will give your company the competitive edge. It's all right here--from data mining, warehousing, and scripting techniques to MDX queries, KPI analysis, and the all-new Unified Dimensional Model. Real-world examples, start-to-finish exercises, and downloadable code throughout illustrate all of the integration, analysis, and reporting capabilities of SQL Server 2005.

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2005 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset by Joy Mundy, Warren Thornthwaite

    Microsoft’s BI toolset has undergone significant changes in the SQL Server 2005 development cycle. SQL Server 2005 is the first viable, full-functioned data warehouse and business intelligence platform to be offered at a price that will make data warehousing and business intelligence available to a broad set of organizations. This book is meant to offer practical techniques to guide those organizations through the myriad of challenges to true success as measured by contribution to business value.

    Building a data warehousing and business intelligence system is a complex business and engineering effort. While there are significant technical challenges to overcome in successfully deploying a data warehouse, the authors find that the most common reason for data warehouse project failure is insufficient focus on the business users and business problems. In an effort to help people gain success, this book takes the proven Business Dimensional Lifecycle approach first described in best selling The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit and applies it to the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 tool set.

    Beginning with a thorough description of how to gather business requirements, the book then works through the details of creating the target dimensional model, setting up the data warehouse infrastructure, creating the relational atomic database, creating the analysis services databases, designing and building the standard report set, implementing security, dealing with metadata, managing ongoing maintenance and growing the DW/BI system. All of these steps tie back to the business requirements. Each chapter describes the practical steps in the context of the SQL Server 2005 platform.

    Note from ssas-info.com: I would say this is a must have book for the person who is responsible for designing architecture of data warehouse using Microsoft technologies and for anyone who wants to know how to do that.

    Review by Greg Low (SQL MVP)

    toolkit2

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2008 R2 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset by Joy Mundy

    In this book, leading data warehouse experts from the Kimball Group share best practices for using the upcoming “Business Intelligence release” of SQL Server, referred to as SQL Server 2008 R2. In this new edition, the authors explain how SQL Server 2008 R2 provides a collection of powerful new tools that extend the power of its BI toolset to Excel and SharePoint users and they show how to use SQL Server to build a successful data warehouse that supports the business intelligence requirements that are common to most organizations. Covering the complete suite of data warehousing and BI tools that are part of SQL Server 2008 R2, as well as Microsoft Office, the authors walk you through a full project lifecycle, including design, development, deployment and maintenance.

    • Features more than 50 percent new and revised material that covers the rich new feature set of the SQL Server 2008 R2 release, as well as the Office 2010 release
    • Includes brand new content that focuses on PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint, Master Data Services, and discusses updated capabilities of SQL Server Analysis, Integration, and Reporting Services
    • Shares detailed case examples that clearly illustrate how to best apply the techniques described in the book
    • The accompanying Web site contains all code samples as well as the sample database used throughout the case studies

    The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit, Second Edition provides you with the knowledge of how and when to use BI tools such as Analysis Services and Integration Services to accomplish your most essential data warehousing tasks.

     

    Foundation of SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Foundations of SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence by Lynn Langit

    Just as every business needs to effectively employ Business Intelligence (BI) to stay competitive, every IT professional needs to master BI to stay employed in this fastest-growing segment of Information Technology. Foundations of SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence is the quickest path to understanding BI, and it is essential reading for all who work with SQL Server 2005. It is written from a practical perspective, perfect for anyone who uses the tools in SQL Server 2005s extraordinarily rich BI product suite.

    This book explains how best to use Analysis Services, SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server Reporting Services, and SQL Server Data Mining. It also describes best practices for implementing end-to-end BI solutions in small, medium, and large business environments. And it provides important information about integrating BI with various client tools, including Excel, Business Scorecards, Proclarity, and SharePoint Portal Server. Developers, end users, and even managers will find this an enlightening guide to the power and promise of SQL Server 2005 BI. Highlights include the following:

    • Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the SQL Server 2005 BI tool suite
    • Concise, yet thorough, so you can use all BI tools effectively
    • Special focus on features to useand avoidto cleanly scale BI solutions
    • Full of sound, practical guidance on real-world best practices
    • Essential reading for developers and users with any level of BI experience
    Practical Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005 image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Practical Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005  by John C. Hancock and Roger Toren

    In this book, two of Microsoft’s leading consultants illustrate how to use SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence (BI) technologies to solve real-world problems in markets ranging from retail and finance to healthcare. Drawing on extensive personal experience with Microsoft’s strategic customers, John C. Hancock and Roger Toren offer unprecedented insight into BI systems design and step-by-step best practices for implementation, deployment, and management.

     

    Hancock and Toren introduce practical BI concepts and terminology and provide a concise primer on the Microsoft BI platform. Next, they turn to the heart of the book—constructing solutions. Each chapter-length case study begins with the customer’s business goals, and then guides you through detailed data modeling. The case studies show how to avoid the pitfalls that derail many BI projects. You’ll translate each model into a working system and learn how to deploy it into production, maintenance, and efficient operation.

     

    Whether you’re a decision-maker, architect, developer, or DBA, this book brings together all the knowledge you’ll need to derive maximum business value from any BI project.

    • Leverage SQL Server 2005 databases, Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services
    • Build data warehouses and extend them to support very large databases
    • Design effective Analysis Services databases
    • Ensure the superior data quality your BI system needs
    • Construct advanced enterprise scorecard applications
    • Use data mining to segment customers, cross-sell, and increase the value of each transaction
    • Design real-time BI applications
    • Get hands-on practice with SQL Server 2005’s BI toolset
    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Unleashed

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Unleashed by Irina Gorbach, Edward Melomed, Alexander Berger

    An enormous worldwide community of database professionals has eagerly awaited Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services. The most powerful analytics toolset Microsoft has ever created, Analysis Services 2008 is the foundation of Microsoft's next-generation Business Intelligence strategy. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Unleashed is the first book to offer the comprehensive insights these professionals need to build enterprise-class OLAP solutions with Analysis Services 2008 rapidly and efficiently. Using this book, developers, architects, and DBAs can create solutions that uncover new opportunities, give managers actionable insights, and solve real business problems. The authors are key members of the Analysis Services team, and can offer insights and advice not available anywhere else.

    • Paperback: 960 pages
    • Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (December 18, 2008)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0672330016
    • ISBN-13: 978-0672330018
    SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Step by Step

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)) by Scott Cameron

    • Paperback: 416 pages
    • Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 16, 2009)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0735626200
    • ISBN-13: 978-0735626201

    Table of contents and sample chaper here...

    Delivering Business Intelligence book image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2/E 2008 by Brian Larson

    With help from this fully updated bestselling book, database professionals will be able to transform disparate enterprise data into actionable Business Intelligence. Covering all the new and improved BI features available in SQL Server 2008, the book shows you how to put timely, mission-critical information in the hands of employees across the organization.

    Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 begins with a discussion of BI, defining what it is and why it is important in today's business environment. After laying this foundation, the book works through the entire BI lifecycle: defining the analysis database; analyzing the data; mining the data; and delivering BI. Several analysis databases will be built and used for examples throughout the book.

    • Paperback: 750 pages
    • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 2 edition (December 16, 2008)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0071549447
    • ISBN-13: 978-0071549448
    Professional Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 with MDX

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Professional Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 with MDX by by Sivakumar Harinath, Robert Zare, Sethu Meenakshisundaram, Matt Carroll, Denny Guang-Yeu Lee

    * When used with the MDX query language, SQL Server Analysis Services allows developers to build full-scale database applications to support such business functions as budgeting, forecasting, and market analysis.
    * Shows readers how to build data warehouses and multi-dimensional databases, query databases, and use Analysis Services and other components of SQL Server to provide end-to-end solutions
    * Revised, updated, and enhanced, the book discusses new features such as improved integration with Office and Excel 2007; query performance enhancements; improvements to aggregation designer, dimension designer, cube and dimension wizards, and cell writeback; extensibility and personalization; data mining; and more

    • Paperback: 850 pages
    • Publisher: Wrox (March 23, 2009)

    Table of contents...

    Book - smart BI solutions with SQL Server 2008

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Smart Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2008
    by Lynn Langit, Kevin S. Goff, Davide Mauri, Sahil Malik and John Welch

    Get expert guidance on SQL Server 2008 technologies, processes, and procedures and accelerate your proficiency developing smart, business intelligence solutions. This book provides practical, end-to-end coverage on how to envision, plan, develop, test, and deploy a complete SQL Server 2008-based business intelligence solution. First, you ll build a foundational knowledge of business intelligence systems and components, including case studies of the most common scenarios. Next, you ll work through the physical and logical design of a business intelligence solution, examining SQL Server tools including SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Integration Services, and SQL Server Reporting Services and the problems they solve. Finally, you ll master core reporting and data-mining techniques. Throughout the book, real-world scenarios and examples illustrate essential concepts and demonstrate the most effective ways to implement the platform. The author brings pragmatic perspectives valuable to the range of business intelligence implementers from business decision makers and administrators, to beginning and advanced level developers and architects.

    Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    PacktPub (e-book or hard copy)

    Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services
    by Marco Russo, Alberto Ferrari, Chris Webb

    This is a practical tutorial for Analysis Services that shows readers how to solve problems commonly encountered while designing cubes, and explains which features of Analysis Services work well and which should be avoided. The book walks through the whole cube development lifecycle, from building dimensions, cubes and calculations to tuning and moving the cube into production.

    This book is aimed at Analysis Services developers who already have some experience but who want to go into more detail on advanced topics, and who want to learn best practices for cube design.

    What you will learn from this book?

    • Build a data mart suitable for use with Analysis Services
    • Create and configure an Analysis Services project in Business Intelligence Development Studio
    • Use the Dimension Wizard and the Dimension Editor to build dimensions
    • Create measure groups and associate them with dimensions
    • Add calculations to the cube, including implementing currency conversion and a date tool dimension
    • Explore the security model, including dimension security and cell security, and implement dynamic security
    • Tune queries to get the best possible performance
    • Automate processing and partition creation
    • Monitor your cube to see who's actually using it

    A note from Vidas Matelis: This is a very good book that is without a doubt a "must read" for all SSAS developers. It has a lot of notes from the "real world" that would have saved me days or weeks in my SSAS database development. Other books tells you "what SSAS can do for you". This book explains "how can you do this with SSAS". Again, I am rating this as a "must read".
    Links: Nick Barclay review

    building-dw

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Building a Data Warehouse: With Examples in SQL Server (Expert's Voice) by Vincent Rainardi

    Product Description

    Building a Data Warehouse: With Examples in SQL Server describes how to build a data warehouse completely from scratch and shows practical examples on how to do it. Author Vincent Rainardi also describes some practical issues he has experienced that developers are likely to encounter in their first data warehousing project, along with solutions and advice. The RDBMS used in the examples is SQL Server; the version will not be an issue as long as the user has SQL Server 2005 or later.

    The book is organized as follows. In the beginning of this book (Chapters 1 through 6), you learn how to build a data warehouse, for example, defining the architecture, understanding the methodology, gathering the requirements, designing the data models, and creating the databases. Then in Chapters 7 through 10, you learn how to populate the data warehouse, for example, extracting from source systems, loading the data stores, maintaining data quality, and utilizing the metadata. After you populate the data warehouse, in Chapters 11 through 15, you explore how to present data to users using reports and multidimensional databases and how to use the data in the data warehouse for business intelligence, customer relationship management, and other purposes. Chapters 16 and 17 wrap up the book: After you have built your data warehouse, before it can be released to production, you need to test it thoroughly. After your application is in production, you need to understand how to administer data warehouse operation.

    What you’ll learn

    • A detailed understanding of what it takes to build a data warehouse
    • The implementation code in SQL Server to build the data warehouse
    • Dimensional modeling, data extraction methods, data warehouse loading, populating dimension and fact tables, data quality, data warehouse architecture, and database design
    • Practical data warehousing applications such as business intelligence reports, analytics applications, and customer relationship management

    Who is this book for?

    There are three audiences for the book. The first are the people who implement the data warehouse. This could be considered a field guide for them. The second is database users/admins who want to get a good understanding of what it would take to build a data warehouse. Finally, the third audience is managers who must make decisions about aspects of the data warehousing task before them and use the book to learn about these issues.

     

    Certification preparation (2005/2008/2008R2/2012)

    Book

    Amazon links by country

    Description

    Image

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-445): Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2005 Business Intelligence Implementation and Maintenance (Pro - Certification) , by Erik Veerman (Author), Dejan Sarka (Author), Javier Loria (Author)

    Announcing an all-new Self-Paced Training Kit designed to help maximize your performance on 70-445, the required exam for the new Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence certification. This 2-in-1 kit includes the official Microsoft study guide, plus practice tests on CD to help you assess your skills. It comes packed with the tools and features exam candidates want most--including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from expert, exam-certified authors; and customizable testing options. It also provides real-world scenarios, case study examples, and troubleshooting labs for skills and expertise that you can apply to the job.

    Key Book Benefits:

    • In-depth coverage of exam objectives and sub-objectives--plus instructive case studies and troubleshooting scenarios to enhance your performance on the job
    • 200+ practice and review questions
    • Test engine that enables customized testing, pre-assessment and post-assessment, and automated scoring and feedback
    • Complete objective-by-objective review section, plus a handy exam-mapping grid
    • 180-day evaluation version of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
    • 15 percent exam discount voucher from Microsoft (limited-time offer)
    • Entire study guide in searchable eBook format
    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance Training kit

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-448): Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance, by Erik Veerman, Teo Lachev and Dejan Sarka of Solid Quality Mentors

    • Paperback: 640 pages
    • Publisher: Microsoft Press (April 1, 2009)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0735626367
    • ISBN-13: 978-0735626362
    video-mentor

    Amazon US

    Amazon UK

    Amazon Canada

    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Business Intelligence Skills for MCTS 70-448 and MCITP 70-452 Video Mentor by Wendy Henry

    Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (SSAS), thousands of businesses are capturing more timely insights for more effective action. To succeed with SSAS, businesses need professionals who've mastered this technology. Thousands of these professionals are seeking to demonstrate their expertise by passing one of Microsoft's new SQL Server exams: MCTS 70-448: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance, or MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008 70-452. In 6+ hours of personal, interactive video mentoring, leading SQL Server trainer Wendy Henry walks you through all the Analysis Services tasks and concepts you need to install, configure, monitor and recover SSAS systems. Henry combines audio instruction, step-by-step screencasts, and more: everything you need to fully understand the tasks you're watching. There's never been a more efficient, cost-effective, compelling SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services training solution.

    • 6+ hours of video mentoring from one of the world's leading SQL Server Analysis Services experts and instructors!
    • Covers exam objectives on MCTS exam 70-448 and MCITP exam 70-452
    • The best of classroom training for a fraction of the price, packed with insider tips and tricks - all delivered in an amazingly convenient, flexible visual format

    Hardcover: 80 pages
    Publisher: Que; 1 edition (June 21, 2010)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 0789743205
    ISBN-13: 978-0789743206

     

    2007-2015 VidasSoft Systems Inc.