Getting Started with Data Warehousing and BI Analytics

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/getting-started-with-data-warehousing-and-bi-analytics

Introduction

### Course Review: Getting Started with Data Warehousing and BI Analytics **Overview** Are you looking to delve into the world of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence (BI) Analytics? Coursera's course "Getting Started with Data Warehousing and BI Analytics" is an excellent starting point for newcomers and aspiring data professionals. This self-paced course provides a comprehensive foundation in designing, deploying, managing, and querying data warehouses and data marts, while also familiarizing students with powerful BI tools essential for data analysis. **Course Structure and Content** The course is meticulously structured into four major modules, progressing from basic concepts to practical applications: 1. **Data Warehouses, Data Marts, and Data Lakes** This module serves as an introduction, comparing and contrasting data warehouse systems, data lakes, and data marts. It dives into the architecture and functionality of each, providing context to their applications in real-world scenarios. Notably, learners will also delve into IBM Db2 data warehouse system architecture and learn how to critically assess new data warehouse offerings based on essential criteria, including total cost of ownership. 2. **Designing, Modeling, and Implementing Data Warehouses** Here, participants explore enterprise data warehousing architecture in detail. Key concepts like data cubes, star and snowflake schemas, and materialized views are addressed. The focus on normalization and data organization is practical and empowering, equipping learners with skills to structure and optimize data for querying effectively. 3. **Data Warehouse Analytics** This hands-on module introduces students to IBM Cognos Analytics—a leading BI tool. Learners will engage with the platform to create visualizations and build dashboards, enhancing their understanding of how data can be transformed into easily digestible insights. 4. **Final Assignment and Final Quiz** The final module consolidates everything learned throughout the course. Students will design a data warehouse, load data using facts and dimension tables, and utilize advanced querying techniques like CUBE and ROLLUP. The capstone project integrates practical skills and theoretical knowledge, culminating in the creation of an analytics dashboard through IBM Cognos. **Learning Experience** The course is designed to be engaging and interactive. With self-paced learning, students can progress according to their schedules, which is perfect for professionals balancing education with work. Each module offers insights coupled with hands-on exercises, ensuring that learners are not just consuming information, but actively applying it. **Who Should Take This Course?** This course is ideal for beginners in the field of Data Warehousing and BI Analytics, as well as professionals looking to refresh or expand their knowledge in this discipline. Data analysts, business analysts, database administrators, and anyone interested in leveraging data for decision-making can greatly benefit from this course. **Recommendation** I highly recommend "Getting Started with Data Warehousing and BI Analytics" for anyone eager to kickstart their journey in data warehousing and business intelligence. The course's structured approach, practical insights, and the opportunity to work with industry-standard tools make it a valuable investment in your education. Whether you are looking to enhance your job prospects in data-related fields or simply wish to understand the intricacies of data management and analytics, this course is a perfect stepping stone. In conclusion, this course provides a rich blend of theory and practice, making complex concepts accessible and applicable. By the end of it, you will not only understand the foundational principles but also have the practical skills to utilize them effectively in real-world scenarios. Don't miss the opportunity to broaden your data analytics horizons—sign up today!

Syllabus

Data Warehouses, Data Marts, and Data Lakes

Welcome to your first module! This module provides a gentle but thorough introduction to data warehouse systems, data lakes, and data marts. When you complete this module, you’ll be able to identify and compare data warehouse systems, data mart, and data lake architecture, and understand how organizations can benefit from each of these three data storage entities. Optionally, you’ll explore the workings of IBM Db2 data warehouse system architecture, view use cases, and understand the key capabilities and integrations available with IBM Db2 Warehouse. Then, you’ll learn about three types of data warehouse systems and popular data warehouse system vendors. You will be ready to help your organization assess new data warehouse system offerings when you know the five essential, critical criteria, including total cost of ownership, to evaluate before changing to a new data warehouse system.

In this knowledge-packed module, you’ll explore general and reference enterprise data warehousing architecture. You’ll discover how data cubes relate to star schemas. Then you’ll learn how to slice, dice, drill up or down, roll up, and pivot relative to data cubes. Next, you will examine the capabilities of materialized views, their benefits, and how to apply them. You’ll learn how data organization using facts and dimensions and their related tables organizes information. Then, you will explore how to use normalization to create a snowflake schema as an extension of the star schema. You will learn about populating a data warehouse, incremental data updates, verifying data, querying data, interpreting an entity-relationship diagram for a star schema, creating a materialized view, and applying the CUBE and ROLLUP options. ​You’ll also discover how organizations can benefit by implementing staging.

In this module, you’ll fast-track your data analytics learning and gain hands-on data analytics experience using IBM Cognos Analytics. After registering with Cognos Analytics, you’ll explore the platform’s capabilities by creating visualizations, building a simple dashboard, and trying out its advanced features.

In this module, you’ll complete your final course project, which brings together concepts and practices you previously learned in the first three modules. In this final project, you will design and load data into a data warehouse using facts and dimension tables. Then you’ll write aggregation queries using CUBE and ROLLUP functions and create materialized query tables, known as a materialized view. You will complete your project by using IBM Cognos to create an analytics dashboard.