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HomeShop at BookSurgeTechnologyEnvironmental Engineering & TechnologyNetezza Underground: The unauthorized tales of derring-do and adventures in resilient data warehousing solutions. |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 4 customer reviews )
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8 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Focused on consequences of poor performance Jan 27, 2009
By Chris
"Chris"
This is a very entertaining book, and very nicely written. The author gives some great war stories and anecdotal information about how to avoid problems with any data warehouse implementation. As Mr. Birmingham says in great detail, insufficient testing, poorly structured data and inattention to data quality will ultimately doom any DW project. However, I was a bit disappointed to find that David Birmingham speaks mostly of the consequential pain that comes from inadequate data warehouse performance. As we all know, barring any inefficiencies introduced by the software, performance is primarily a function of the hardware used to run that software. Put another way, software can run slower than the hardware allows, but it can't make inadequate hardware run faster. It's nice to know what can be accomplished if you have adequate hardware, but Mr. Birmingham ultimately fails to demonstrate why Netezza is any better than a properly sized system running RDBMS software products that are more prevalent in the market. Inadequately configured hardware results in over-indexing, widespread use of summary tables, improper use of partitioning and other "tweaks" that make the data warehouse un-manageable. Those are consequences of the hardware configuration issue (and can result in significant pain!), but it's not something that is innate to RDBMS software.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Less Technical Sep 08, 2011
By Kaliaperumal Arumugam
I had lot of expectation about this book because everyone in enzee community talks about it. For some reason this book is very high level and not in detail.
It would have been better with more pictorial representation.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Wow and wow. Keep coming back. Nov 14, 2011
By Aya
I can't say enough about this book. It is has been a bible, tome of wisdom, and textbook since I first starting reading it. I think the issue with the poor reviews comes from the fact that these guys must not have a Netezza system. I think if I didn't have one I'd be a little confused by the book. That said, my employer has a few. I get everything this book is saying!!!
David's book constantly reminds me, "Oh, yeah, let the machine do what it was made for" or "They did the complex engineering, so I don't have too." There seems to be a certain level of understanding (or lack there of) for Netezza. David is just pointing out the framework. This kind of stuff is not for the beginner (here we are talking about 10s of Billions if not 100s of Billions of data points), so if you grabbed this book, don't have Netezza, and are new to big data, well, this may not be the book for you (someone commented about pictures and I don't think the coloring book version will be out anytime soon either, sorry). However, if you see big, scary data daily and you see the complexity out there for other systems, you will definitely have a laugh as you read through this book.
David, please keep passing along the knowledge! I have both books and hand them out to new converts all the time. I look forward to the next and the next!
5 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Engaging, entertaining and full of useful information Nov 26, 2008
By P. Francisco
I commend David Birmingham on a book that is at once as lightly entertaining and interesting to read as it is chock full of details about just the kind of performance and operational simplicity that is possible with the Netezza Performance Server (NPS) system. Straightaway from the opening pages, Birmingham's effusive, engaging style and excitement about Netezza's system is apparent, "It inhales, crunches and publishes Libraries-of-Congress-at-a-time - and fast."
He also captures the essence of the NPS appliance in an ultra-succinct two-sentence paragraph explaining just why his "Administration Stuff" chapter is so short, "It's an appliance. Put it in the corner and let it work." I couldn't have said it better myself!
This book is comprehensive and current - even reflecting some of the more recent announcements from Netezza regarding OnStream programmability, the Netezza Developer Network and analytic appliances.
As the guy who is responsible for projecting the Netezza products and our technology direction forward, I want to recommend David Birmingham's book to current and prospective customers and partners alike, or as David himself says on the book's Dedication page, "to Enzees everywhere".
--Phil Francisco, VP Product Management & Marketing, Netezza Corporation
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