Way back in November of 2010, I published my second course with Pluralsight, Introduction to Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. Over that time a lot has transpired. While the basic fundamentals haven’t changed, a lot of technology has. In addition, Microsoft’s WideWorldImporters sample provides a great platform for demonstrating many of the concepts.
Additionally, I have to admit that after eight years the slides and accompanying graphics have started to look a bit dated. As a result, Pluralsight asked me to update the course.
I’m happy to announce the new and improved version of Introduction to Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence is now live at Pluralsight!
In case the title didn’t give it away, in this course I cover all the basics of data warehousing and business intelligence. What are facts and dimensions, and what do they actually look like in the database? How should you design a data warehouse?
All new to this course, you’ll see the various tools from Microsoft to do DW/BI, using the all new Wide World Importers sample database as our platform. You’ll see how to design a database using SSDT, and see how the concepts of DW/BI were implemented.
You’ll also see how SSIS was used to achieve ETL, as well as SSAS to create an analytic cube to do BI. Multiple tools are then explored for reporting; SSRS, Mobile Report Publisher, Excel, and PowerBI.
So, who is this course for?
As a DBA, you’ll be asked to implement new data warehouse projects. The design of a data warehouse is very different from a traditional database, and it’s important to understand these differences. In addition, you’ll be asked to install and configure the data warehouse tools. We’ll talk about the tools included with SQL Server, such as SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services.
If you are a database designer or developer, you’ll be asked to design these data warehouses. As we said, the design is VERY different from a traditional database. You need to understand these differences in order to implement a data warehouse.
Software developers are interacting with data warehouses on an increasing basis, in order to get additional data for their programs. In the past developers had to create custom interfaces to other systems in order to get additional information needed for their applications. In today’s world developers are being told to get that required data from the central repository of the data warehouse.
Finally, this course is valuable for project managers and business users who seek to understand the systems they can pull data from in order to do self service reporting. By the end of the course users will understand what terms like facts and dimensions mean, and how to effectively use them in your reporting.
If you aren’t already a Pluralsight customer, but are interested, just shoot me an email: free @ arcanetc.com. I can hook you up with a code which will give you 30 days of access to their site, during which you can watch my courses, or any of the courses on Pluralsight. S
Arcane Code 