Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Data on a PDW

Taking a closer look at how data is stored on the PDW, you’ll better understand how this architecture yields the data access speeds it delivers. Looking at Figure 57.3, we will define a typical star schema sales database that contains sales facts (measures) such as Sales Units (A), Sales Amounts (B), and Sales Returns (C). In addition, this star schema has three dimensions: a Product hierarchical dimension, a Geography hierarchical dimension, and a Time dimension. Each fact in the fact tables are identified by all three of these dimensions.

FIGURE 57.3 Sales Data facts(measures) and dimensions on the PDW.

Now, as you can also see ...