The amount of data recorded, processed and managed has augmented at huge rates as the web age progressed, and as organizations became increasingly sophisticated and shifted from slow reaction times to acting quickly and proactively. The web increased dramatically the number of transactions and the speed at which transactions are done. Technologies and mechanisms evolved to handle the scalability and realtime requirements of the new context. There were advances in hardware and software, but also in the way data processing systems are designed. Data warehouses are the large repositories of historical data that needs to be processed, managed and analysed efficiently. This book describes data warehouse solutions to handle scalability and realtime needs of modern contexts. The mechanisms that should be used for scalability are studied, including foundations and most recent approaches that are also covered in the book. The topics of bigdata and the use of bigdata technologies in the context is also introduced. The book can be used as part of a Graduate Course Curriculum, as a reference for researchers working on the theme or by practicing engineers in both integrators and companies commercializing systems for efficient and scalable data management. It can also be used as a reference on parallel/distributed databases in an undergraduate course. It assumes basic familiarity with computer and software systems, databases and SQL, the kind of knowledge that would be acquired in introductory courses in those subjects.
About the Author: Pedro Furtado is Professor at University of Coimbra UC, Portugal, where he teaches courses in both Computer and Biomedical Engineering. He has more than 25 years experience in both teaching, doing research and supervising industry projects. He has a broad interest in computer science subjects, with the main focus being on performance and scalability qualities of systems. Pedro applied these qualities in data warehousing and analytics, bigdata, data mining, cloud, IoT and realtime systems. He also works in assistive technologies, applying mobile and internet-of-things technologies to healthcare scenarios. Pedro has more than 150 papers published in international conferences and journals, books published and several research collaborations with both industry and academia. In the last years, Pedro has spent time as visiting scholar in some of the most prestigious universities in the world, and collaborating with non-profit institutions.