JC said
Through the first 3 chapters I felt like the book may have some promise. True, the brief overviews didn't really pertain to any major aspects of Analysis Services, but it was interesting to learn the background of the product.
Once I got to chapters 4, 5 and 6 I almost fell asleep. The author tries to explain multidimensional cubes with no real foresight into how this applies to Analysis Services. I found myself completely confused as to what was trying to be explained. My background is mainly in RDBMS, but I have enough experience with multidimensional databases to understand the core concepts. However, I am still trying to figure out what those chapters were about.
I agree with the other commenter who mentioned that this book is completely difficult to read and I say that it is not worth buying.
Abhishek Srivastava said
I found this book to be extremely informative. I have read many other books on SSAS and I found that this book can tell you a lot about how SSAS really works. It also have an very wide and excellent coverage of topics which are seldom even discussed in many other SSAS books.
Mind you that if you are a newbie this may be a bit too overwhelming. However if you know the subject and want more detailed knowledge on inner workings of SSAS, then this book is a MUST READ.
Don't be too bothered about reviews on Amazon which say that this contains lot of XML based samples.... The XML samples are required, because the show how to use XMLA (Xml for Analysis Services).
All in all, this is the best book written on the subject.
Binh N. Cao said
For those of you who want to be the best at what you do, this book will get you there in a hurry. I am a professional consultant (MCS) with microsoft and I know the caliber of the authors (the most knowledgeable product people who built SSAS) and recognize the beginner book from the most advanced book. This is at the far right end of most advanced book. If you are beginner who hates XMLA, then please go get book for dummies or something and stop whining about advanced features showing here. I use this book for my reference as well as a deep understanding of the product internal. For those of you actually use MSFT BI product to build something useful and professional, this is the book for you. For those of you who are new and who cannot read very well, please find the dummies books, as those are for you.
Purchaser said
It's very appalling to see writers that claim to have worked on the product but could not give clear and accurate examples of any topics discussed. Waste of money from my perspective.
Daniel T. Clark said
I have thousands of hours of experience with SSAS 2000 and 2005. I think that SSAS is one of the best (if unappreciated) Microsoft products.
I bought this book for one reason - it was the first one available. If you need one now, then get it. But be warned that it's not particularly good.
The key problem is that the authors are fascinated with XML. They use raw XML to explain a wide variety of concepts and tasks. For the authors and publishers, it has the benefit of wasting a lot of space. This fattens the book and makes it look like you are getting more for your money.
Unfortunately for the readers, the book is difficult to read and completely misses the point of the SSAS interface. XML is the underlying metadata structure of SSAS. That is the last place you should look to understand cube and dimensional structure, or for modifying how the cube works.
For a professional programmer (me), time is money and productivity is everything. First you should should use the graphical and tabular representation of metadata to manipulate the cubes and dimension. THEN, you write MDX functions when necessary. If all else fails, mess with the XML.
If you can wait a few weeks, there are two new books coming out for AS 2008. I believe either would a much better alternative to this book.
Don't waste your money buying this book like I did.
Regards,
Dan.
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