Microsoft BI Books

Question

I've been looking for a book that provides a good overview of all the tools available from Microsoft regarding BI and have found the following. Has anyone read any one (or two) of these books? If you have what is yout thoughts?

• Smart Business Intelligence Solutions With Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2005 And The Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset
• Microsoft Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop

I think the last one would be good to have as a reference for analytical purposes, but which one would be the recommend one between the first two? Ideally I'm looking for books that would illistrate industry best practices regarding the implementatio nand design of data warehouses (book 1 & 2) and then the tools used to interpret the data.

Answer 1

Hi Orion,

Building the Data Warehouse by Bill Inmon and The Data Warehouse Toolkit by Ralph Kimball. Both books should be present on any BI developer's bookshelf.

MDX_Solutions_With_MS_SQL_Server_Analysis_Services_2005_And_Hyperion_Essbase_2nd_Edition is also a good book.

Step by step books of SQL Server is useful too.

Thanks,
Jin Chen

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Jin Chen - MSFT

Answer 2

Some for BI books for your reference

 "Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services"

If you're still using 2005, this is a great book -
  Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services by Melomed, Gorbach, Berger and Bateman. 

This is a must have book, To advance your knowledge in SSAS, you must master MDX/DMX

MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion Essbase by George Spofford, Sivakumar Harinath, Christopher Webb, and Dylan Hai Huang (Paperback - Mar 6, 2006)

Data mining:

Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Jamie MacLennan, ZhaoHui Tang, and Bogdan Crivat (Paperback - Nov 17, 2008)

Data Mining with SQL Server 2005 by ZhaoHui Tang and Jamie MacLennan (Paperback - Oct 7, 2005)

  helpful sites:

http://www.ssas-info.com/

http://www.sqlserverdatamining.com/ssdm/


   

hth,

Rok

Answer 3

   

Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Jamie MacLennan, ZhaoHui Tang, and Bogdan Crivat (Paperback - Nov 17, 2008)

Data Mining with SQL Server 2005 by ZhaoHui Tang and Jamie MacLennan (Paperback - Oct 7, 2005) 

It's old, Any new version?

Answer 4

The by far best data warehouse/BI book for SQL Server IMHO is

 

Building a Data Warehouse: With Examples in SQL Server

 

The author also has a blog at http://dwbi1.wordpress.com/

 

Cheers

uli

Answer 5

I think the Kimball book should also be mentioned.

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

Answer 6

The guys at Intersoft Books are very helpful when it comes to Microsoft related Books. I'm sure they have the books you are looking for in stock

Answer 7

   

Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Jamie MacLennan, ZhaoHui Tang, and Bogdan Crivat (Paperback - Nov 17, 2008)

Data Mining with SQL Server 2005 by ZhaoHui Tang and Jamie MacLennan (Paperback - Oct 7, 2005) 

It's old, Any new version?

There are no new features in Microsoft data mining tools since 2008. So Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is still current.

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Tatyana Yakushev [PredixionSoftware.com]

Answer 8

Hi,

If you're looking for a book that provides a good overview of the BI stack I would recommend Knight's Microsoft Business Intelligence 24-Hour Trainer. This book has chapters that aren't that long so you can quickly finish and move on to the next topic. It also has accompanying video lessons that support/reinforce what was just introduced.

This primer covers dimensional modeling, data warehousing, SSIS, SSRS and SSAS  in small pieces that are easy to swallow. Once you are done with this, you can easily transition into Knights 24 hour Integration Services or any other BI or SQL Server book. Hope this helps!

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