Please note that I am not very happy with the Kindle version... ---------------------------------------------------------- Dario Mangano obviously spent a great deal of time and effort on his book. It is quite lengthy and very detailed. It is presented in a very organized fashion. He began by including a historic background and then explaining the Integrated Data Hub concept. He also created an actual plan for others to follow by explaining and detailing his ideas. It's amazing He is extremely thorough, writing chapter after chapter, dealing with various components that the reader needs to understand. In the forward by Hans Hultgren, Hans writes, "This book is a guide to a successful data warehousing business intelligence (DWBI) program." I believe that this could be a really useful book to many people, an actual "how to guide" for them to utilize in implementing their own program. I was so impressed by his attention to visual affects in his book. Many people are visual learners. Mangano draws them into reading and using his work by adding pictures, diagrams, highlighting something by boxing it in visually, etc. For example, when sharing a definition right in chapter one he boxed it in. He wrote "Data integration involves combining data residing in different sources and providing users with a unified view of these data. This process becomes significant in a variety of situations, which include both commercial (when two similar companies need to merge their databases) and scientific (combining research results from different bioinformatics repositories, for example) domains. Data integration appears with increasing frequency as the volume and the need to share existing data explodes. It has become the focus of extensive theoretical work, and numerous open problems remain unsolved. In management circles, people frequently refer to data integration as "Enterprise Information Integration" (EII). (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) This is long but very important and he found a way for it to stand out. Using these sorts of strategies and implementations in his book really cemented the fact that not only does he know his material, he took the time and effort to present it in a fashion that will be easily read by many. His diagrams and charts are so spot on and create a handbook that will be able to be used by many In Chapter 9 Dario writes, "In a traditional EDW reference architecture, you should find something called Operational Data Store (ODS) exactly at the place where I have put my HiST layer. But be careful, the HiST layer is not an ODS The HiST layer is not a good place to do Operational Reporting. The data are not integrated and the real historization is not yet performed." The way he writes is very directive and he explains concepts in a way that literally walks people through steps. By using his book, it is as though he is there as a consultant. I love this style of writing and it is rare to find it. He is well read on his subject and offers both critiques and accolades for others who have written in this area. For example he writes, "Despite the slight criticisms that I have done on Ralph Kimball's work in a previous chapter, I still believe that star schemas are best suited to meet queries destined for Analytical Reporting." The Bibliography is very thorough and well done. By asking Hans Hulgren to do a forward was an excellent plan since Hulgren has much space in the Bibliography and is obviously a large part of Mangano's learning. The organizational style is superb and by detailing each diagram used in the Table of Figures this will be a great way for users of the book to look up a figure that they wish to refer back to. Chapter headings, boxed in information as I alluded to before all create a useful, easy to read document that should become a well-known book in this field. Congratulations on a job well done Jan Hemmington, M.S., Ph.D.