The focus of this chapter is how to design a data warehouse specifically for Analysis Services. There are numerous books available that explain the theory of dimensional modeling and data warehouses; our goal here is not to discuss generic data warehousing concepts, but to help you adapt the theory to the needs of Analysis Services.

In this chapter, we will touch on just about every aspect of data warehouse design, and mention several subjects that cannot be analyzed in depth in a single chapter. We will cover some of these subjects in detail, such as Analysis Services cube, and dimension design, in later chapters. Other aspects, which are outside the scope of this book, will require further research on the part of the reader.