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The Analytics Setup Guidebook
Have you ever wondered how to build a contemporary analytics stack that is useful, scalable, and easy to maintain? And have you looked into building such a stack, only to find yourself quickly drowning in a sea of jargon?
We know how that feels, because we’ve been there. The truth is that much knowledge of modern data analytics is locked up in the heads of busy practitioners. Very little of it is laid out in a self-contained format.
In this short book, we will give you a practical, high-level understanding of a modern analytics system. We will show you what the components of most modern data stacks are, and how best to put everything together.
This book is suitable for technical team members who are looking into setting up an analytics stack for their company for the very first time.
We know how that feels, because we’ve been there. The truth is that much knowledge of modern data analytics is locked up in the heads of busy practitioners. Very little of it is laid out in a self-contained format.
In this short book, we will give you a practical, high-level understanding of a modern analytics system. We will show you what the components of most modern data stacks are, and how best to put everything together.
This book is suitable for technical team members who are looking into setting up an analytics stack for their company for the very first time.
187 pages, ebook
Published June 11, 2020
10 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 1, 2022
When a vendor offers me a free ebook, my gut instinct is skepticism. I'd probably have skipped this one, were it not for its powerful opening statement:
This resonated with me, as I'm sure it did with many other data professionals. Our industry is one flooding with fads, buzzwords, hypes, and bootcamps which not only don't clarify but obscure our technical landscape. Amidst all this noise, it can be frustratingly difficult to find the signal, which is precisely that this book aims to do.
I was impressed by both the content and its structure. Its approach to the modern analytics stack feels organic, lucid, adding complexity where it's needed and removing it where it's not. Its technical level feels just right for its target audience, never too daunting nor too basic. All this is aided by the prose, which is outstandingly good for a technical book.
As for the elephant in the room, this book is published by Holistics, a company and BI platform which makes no secret about its stakes in the discourse. But even this was handled surprisingly well; the authors are upfront about their biases, and Holistics is objectively evaluated side by side with similar tools like Looker. In other words, though the book is inevitably partial to Holistics's philosophy, I never felt I was being tricked into buying their product.
Have you ever wondered how to build a contemporary analytics stack that is useful, scalable, and easy to maintain? And have you looked into building such a stack, only to find yourself quickly drowning in a sea of jargon?
This resonated with me, as I'm sure it did with many other data professionals. Our industry is one flooding with fads, buzzwords, hypes, and bootcamps which not only don't clarify but obscure our technical landscape. Amidst all this noise, it can be frustratingly difficult to find the signal, which is precisely that this book aims to do.
I was impressed by both the content and its structure. Its approach to the modern analytics stack feels organic, lucid, adding complexity where it's needed and removing it where it's not. Its technical level feels just right for its target audience, never too daunting nor too basic. All this is aided by the prose, which is outstandingly good for a technical book.
As for the elephant in the room, this book is published by Holistics, a company and BI platform which makes no secret about its stakes in the discourse. But even this was handled surprisingly well; the authors are upfront about their biases, and Holistics is objectively evaluated side by side with similar tools like Looker. In other words, though the book is inevitably partial to Holistics's philosophy, I never felt I was being tricked into buying their product.
July 22, 2020
Found out a lot of useful and interesting information about building a full-stack data analytics within a business (why company changing from ETL to ELT and why self-servicing data analytics is taking the throne).
I have done the analyst job for almost 2 years and not until I read this book did I truly understand what I have done in the past years, how my piece contributes to the whole picture.
Really recommend anyone working as an analyst reading this.
I have done the analyst job for almost 2 years and not until I read this book did I truly understand what I have done in the past years, how my piece contributes to the whole picture.
Really recommend anyone working as an analyst reading this.
June 20, 2024
What a great resource…and for free! Perfect for anyone working in or attempting to break into the data space. As the book comes from a BI-vendor I was expecting more selling than knowledge, but was definitely the other way around.
April 10, 2021
The Analytics Setup guide book is indeed a great book and easy to read and would be very much understandable to a laymen. The book holds all the concepts to setup an analytic environment right from scratch and all the budding data analysts, will find this book very useful. The books speaks about the modern analytic stack, how to establish a data warehouse and differences between ETL and ELT. The book also speaks about various data modelling concepts which include Kimball's Dimensional data modelling.
Anyone who would give this book a complete read would gain a high level knowledge on how to set up the analytics infrastructure from scratch and serve data in a useable form to end users. I would highly recommend this to budding data analysts.
Anyone who would give this book a complete read would gain a high level knowledge on how to set up the analytics infrastructure from scratch and serve data in a useable form to end users. I would highly recommend this to budding data analysts.
June 18, 2021
Great overview of what is data analytics is all about. The context was a bit technical but it was clear and straightforward. Definitely a good read for data experts and BI professionals. There was bit a marketing part for the tool being promoted but the authors did a good job to elaborate the concepts of the data warehouse.
April 12, 2021
Excellent overview of data stacks. This book not only tells you what components are necessary to build a modern data warehouse to manage your company's data, but explains the "why" behind each piece and the historical contexts of how data engineering and management standards have evolved over time, which helps the reader better understand whatever legacy systems they might come across.
April 7, 2021
The writing of the book is very simple and easy to understand for any professional who want to know about the analytics setup. The book has captured the changing paradigm of ETL to ELT which helps the readers as how the way the technology is changing over the period of time.
Overall a quick guide to know about the analytics ecosystem.
Overall a quick guide to know about the analytics ecosystem.
June 10, 2021
Great read! The authors well explained & demonstrated concepts as to how to build & manage an organization's analytics infrastructure and compared available options for each step along the funnel.
Besides, even when we've built our own pipeline, we still get some ideas for how to optimize further ;)
Keep up the good work team ;)
Besides, even when we've built our own pipeline, we still get some ideas for how to optimize further ;)
Keep up the good work team ;)
June 1, 2021
Really great overview of the different approaches to data analytics in use today. I’m normally very wary of most ebooks and white papers that companies publish. They can tend to be just content fluff meant to push the brand out there. In this case though I felt like the authors were genuinely trying to be helpful and they definitely succeeded. I thought it was refreshing that they acknowledged that the book was written by the team at the Holistics and were very up front about their own biases when it comes to the data stack. This had the breadth and writing quality of a short book with the practicality and clarity of a blog post. I’d definitely recommend to any business analytics professional.
July 11, 2020
I understand (and the authors also state it from the very beginning) that this book is not comprehensive guide to the such broad and complex as data analytics is. Therefore, definite lack of any kind of practical examples probably should not be a huge drawback (some pseudo-code is there, but I do not consider it as a practical sample). And I also understand, that this is perhaps done on purpose to prevent readers from seeing this book as solely Holistics.io marketing material. However, without real practical data/samples this books lacks benefits it may present to the readers, especially to absolute beginners in data analytics.
But generally, I liked it and got some new and valuable knowledge. Still recommend it!
But generally, I liked it and got some new and valuable knowledge. Still recommend it!
August 13, 2020
+ A rather quick & easy read, even for the non-technical reader
+ Succeeds in what it aimed to do: to provide an overview of the analytics setup from data extraction all the way to BI dashboards
+ Given that the book is really marketing material, I was happily surprised to see that the authors included a long list of competitors at every turn and seemed fairly objective in writing about them
= Recommended reading for anyone who needs to scratch the surface on all things data engineering, without the need or time for a tech deep-dive
The ebook is freely available at Holistics.io website: https://www.holistics.io/books/setup-...
+ Succeeds in what it aimed to do: to provide an overview of the analytics setup from data extraction all the way to BI dashboards
+ Given that the book is really marketing material, I was happily surprised to see that the authors included a long list of competitors at every turn and seemed fairly objective in writing about them
= Recommended reading for anyone who needs to scratch the surface on all things data engineering, without the need or time for a tech deep-dive
The ebook is freely available at Holistics.io website: https://www.holistics.io/books/setup-...
April 18, 2021
Interesting book for aspiring/current data engineers/analysts. Explains the importance of adopting different tools/methodologies in business intelligence space along with modern data architectural concepts and also explains the evolution of methodologies/concepts along with change of requirements in the industry. The different thing about this book is it explains how different roles/teams act on data along with taxonomy.
June 21, 2021
A complete package for getting started with data domain for all the data aspirants from different domain to get started with the tools and concept of data engineering.
The book is very well drafted starting with a quality introduction progressing further with the required domain knowledge in data engineering and the case studies to make them understand is one of the best part of the book.
Overall a well-structred book for people who want to get started in Data Engineering!!
The book is very well drafted starting with a quality introduction progressing further with the required domain knowledge in data engineering and the case studies to make them understand is one of the best part of the book.
Overall a well-structred book for people who want to get started in Data Engineering!!
January 2, 2022
I think it is a good book for any fresher Data Analyst or Data Engineer although I'm a Fresher Data engineer. It just takes 2-3 hours to read and give you an overview of all basic knowledge about Tools and history BI and how they solve problems for Business. It helps me answer some questions and to answer that It will took more than 3 hours. Hope to have chance to work with author in the future.
February 22, 2021
Clear and easy to understand contents and new concept for me on ELT.
I enjoy reading the guidebook and like how it guides readers to understand
from big pictures to details. And I like how most of the session started with questions first and main points to focus, in this way,
we won't lose our focus while reading.
This guidebook is really awesome and really one of the best guidebook.
I enjoy reading the guidebook and like how it guides readers to understand
from big pictures to details. And I like how most of the session started with questions first and main points to focus, in this way,
we won't lose our focus while reading.
This guidebook is really awesome and really one of the best guidebook.
August 26, 2021
This book covers the fundamental-to-intermediate level of concept and implementation methodology for data warehousing and BI. The content is organized well and comprehensive, and is in accordance with my DW/BI journey and experience. It is definitely a good reference book for people in BI and Data Analytics.
September 28, 2021
A great read. Fortunate enough to read this on time. Very well explained the analytic journey and challenges + opportunities. Hardly find a free edition in this nature. Got to know through "Google Data Analytic Professional Certificate" in Coursera. Concise enough to read within few hours. Again very valuable read if you are in analytic context.
December 31, 2021
In my opinion it is very well structured. You know what topics will be dealt with next. I liked it to be very colloquial written. I think that the drawings were both relevant and nice. I would recommend it to anyone who has a couple of spare hours and want to get an opinionated take on should do BI.
January 12, 2023
The book is useful and easy to read. Although the book is about data stacks which is related to technical domain, the content is straightforward, transparent, well-structured and easy to understand. It provides me an overview of what is all data analytitcs about.
It take only 3 -4 hours to read and understand basically the overview.
It take only 3 -4 hours to read and understand basically the overview.
May 6, 2023
Great book that explains the modern analytics stack in not too technical terms, overviews the historic developments in this field and gives more context what drove the change and mass adoption of DWHs like BigQuery, Redshift and Snowflake. The last chapter about the arc of adoption was great read. Best of all, it's a free download from Holistics website!
July 11, 2024
This short book is a comprehensive guide about the data stack, challenges, history, and setup of data stacks. I've been working as a data analyst for 10+ years but I still learned a lot from this writing, and it gave me a lot of thoughts on what areas I'd like to know more about. Can be read in an afternoon, highly recommended.
September 21, 2020
A little book about the landscapes of business intelligence. As a junior data analyst, it allowed me to understand the technologies available as well as the technologies I am working on.
It changed my paradigm from ETL to ELT. Overall a great book for a comprehensive review of bi tech
It changed my paradigm from ETL to ELT. Overall a great book for a comprehensive review of bi tech
March 18, 2021
I read this guidebook, it has fully informative and knowledgeable about data analytics and BI. I am really feeling proud to be part this opportunity. This guide will help to resolve many challenges and technologies.
July 12, 2021
Provides a high-level introduction to approaching data analytics and serving the business intelligence needs of all types of organizations. I found Chapter 2 to be particularly useful when thinking about how and where to start with analytics, and Chapter 4 for how things can evolve over time.
July 15, 2021
This guidebook provided a good overview about analytical systems for beginners who want to work in the data analytic field in the future. Data Lake, DWH, ETL vs ELT, Data Modeling and BI Tools were mentioned and explained in excellent logic.
August 2, 2021
I enjoyed reading the book. Was just at the right level to be engaging, informative without getting stuck in too much detail. Thank you, the book gives a clear overview of the current analytics landscape (also touching on history) and where the trends are going.
August 16, 2021
This guidebook gives me the big knowledge of the difference between ETL and ELT transactions. The best part of writing for my view is Data Modeling Layer and Concepts because this part includes real world problems in business not only theoretical.
December 22, 2023
Quantity does not mean quality. This was, if not the best, book I have read on the subject. Exposed with extreme clarity, simplicity and didactic, it gives me the feeling of the competence that Holistics (by the way, the name fits very well) has in the data area.
January 24, 2024
It is very seldom the case that a book about a topic like data analytics is not only very informative but also very funny to read. I am enjoying the book not only because of the many useful tips but also becauce of the easy access it gives to data management.
November 4, 2024
A concise and easy-to-read guide to the modern data platform. I really enjoyed the view into the evolution of the Kimball and Ross framework and how to adapt it to modern cloud platforms.
Anyone looking to get a start in building a new data platform would be well served reading this.
Anyone looking to get a start in building a new data platform would be well served reading this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews