Data Warehousing

While real time data analysis allows businesses and organizations to monitor what is happening with their business quickly and easily, it is also necessary to store all past data to create a 'corporate memory' for the business.

And when you consider the huge amounts of data that a business can produce in just one month, or even just one day in some cases, you will realize that this is a huge volume of data, and making sense of it all can be a complex task.

This is where data warehousing comes in. Data warehousing has been around since the 1980s and is a specific type of computer database designed to deal with huge the volumes of data involved.

Data Warehouses have a number of advantages:

1. The databases are designed to make information analysis and reporting as simple and effective as possible.
   
   
2. For companies that use more than one normal database, a Data Warehouse provides a means of combining this information and storing it in one place.
   
   
3. It also means that information can be accessed without interfering with the work of the business' operational databases.
   
   
4. Data Warehouse databases are designed to provide quick response times even when dealing with high volumes of data.
   
   
5. For the most part, it is easy to access Data Warehouse data and have it presented in a way the end user can easily understand. It is also possible to analyze trends.

So, for example, if you want to see what the top selling product was in the latter half of 2005, a Data Warehouse database should be able to return this information quickly.

Of course, extracting this information is a skill in itself and can require data analysts to perform complex queries to get exactly what is needed from such a huge amount of data. However, increasingly user-friendly information access tools are making this process much easier.

In most businesses, the data from the operational database/s is transferred to the Data Warehouse at regular intervals. The end user should have the tools necessary to access the information stored in the Data Warehouse and to analyze it. The Data Warehouse should also have a data access layer and a metadata layer.

Ideally, a Data Warehouse should be put in place when a business' operational databases are put in place to help avoid any compatibility issues. A Data Warehouse can also be resource-heavy, both in terms of equipment and personnel. Running a Data Warehouse requires a lot of computer resources, takes time to update and access, and requires data professionals to maintain it and effectively access data.

 

Written by: David C Skul - CEO

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