data storage and management

Mark and Mark have always been known to deliver the kind of detail practitioners demand. They don't disappoint with this book. It's very practical for the typcial implementation.

For those who are looking for "better practice" I offer recommendations that are admittedly outside of their area of expertise. The total approach -- staffing, activities, etc. -- is reflective of the 'typical' IT environment. Web deployment, however is not 'typical IT'. A single box on their team org chart, labeled 'webmaster' should be, in reality an entire collective of specialists who design and develop commercial Web sites (refer to the roles noted at [URL]). It would be roles such at these who would work to establish the requirements, with techniques not covered in this book.

Two other significant considerations not covered by their exhaustive detail are: establishing benchmarks to base metrics against and determining additional feedback loops (to be added to the Web designs) to enhance the data.

The book goes into a fair amount of detail on certain topics, like server log files, and the generalized architecture of modern web sites. However, it doesn't really drill into any detail on the issues that may come up, such as cookieless browsers, ideas for cleansing dirty URLs, and methodology issues (when do you not count a pageview?).

As for the construction of the warehouse itself, it does provide some good generalized schemas that you can use for ideas, but nothing that you couldn't dream up yourself with a few days on a project.

A good overview, but no substitute for on-the-job learning.

This book is an excellent treatment of architecture and detail for constructing a clickstream data warehouse. There are useful examples and explanations of clickstream data, data warehouse design, hardware requirements, performance recommendations, and the ET&L process. The authors seem to take a no fear attitude in revealing problems and suggesting solutions.