Creating Your First Multidimensional Cube - Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development - page 41

Chapter 3. Creating Your First

Multidimensional Cube

Now that you have installed Analysis Services and have familiarized yourself with the
development environment, it is time to really get started with the development of your
first multidimensional cube. In this chapter we will cover the following topics:

• Creating a connection to the database sources
• The importance of the data source view
• Creating dimensions
• How to create the first cube

An introduction to data warehousing

Before actually getting started, there is an important concept that needs to be covered
and that is data warehouse modeling. The data warehouse is a concept that has
been around since the 1970s, it is a central database built for reporting that integrates
data from disparate sources to a common location and a common schema. It also re-
moves the direct connection between the source systems and the historical data. This
means that if you change your source system, you will retain historical records and
can decommission the old system.

The schema in a data warehouse in many cases is built in Third normal form ( 3NF )
to ensure that data is only stored once to minimize the storage cost and make it easi-
er to maintain.

Tip

For more information about 3NF, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3NF .

This is a strategy commonly referenced as an Inmon data warehouse coming from
the father of data warehousing, Bill Inmon. Also have a look at ht-
tp://inmoninstitute.com/about/index .