From: "Gail Kahn" Subject: Septermber PUF Meeting Announcement Date: Thursday, September 07, 2000 11:40 AM Paradox User's Forum Date and Time: Monday, September 11, 6:45 PM Meeting Topic: "Data Warehousing" David Gessner, Long Ridge Data, Inc. Description: Transaction-based Relational Database Management Systems have finally become the backbone of most Enterprise business systems, overcoming processing throughput limitations through high-speed hardware and architectural innovation. In Enterprise processing environments, these systems are optimized for data entry. They are unfriendly to non-technical business analysts. Enterprise DBAs cannot really tolerate non-technical user's ad hoc queries run amok. Dimensional Data Warehouse were invented to provide analysis and reporting on Enterprise data. These are separate databases which extract data from the source system on a routine basis. These databases are read-only and typically have a particular two-level hierarchical structure called a "star schema". These systems break a number of relational rules and are very complex to build and maintain. The speaker will give an overview of Data Warehouses in general and describe his experience implementing such a system at a "dot com" in Western Mass. Meeting Location: New Horizons Computer Learning Center, 5 Old Concord Road, Burlington, MA. [Directions: Take Exit 32B on Route 128. Turn Left onto Middlesex Turnpike (proceeding south, away from the Burlington Mall, staying inside Route 128). Turn left at the first light onto Wheeler Road, and left again onto Old Concord Road. Parking is free.] For Information: Call David Kahn at 508-651-3112, FAX: 508-651-3233, http://www.dlawton.com/bcdug.htm or email: bcdug@dlawton.com.