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DATA WAREHOUSES
Introduction:
A data warehouse (DW) refers to an amalgamation of tools which are used to assist the employee of the information sectors, specifically managers, analysts and supervisors to take swift action as it deals with collecting and presenting all the information related to an entity at the correct place and time so as to make the correct choice with the correct amount of monetary involvement. Other systems such as the online transaction processing (OLTP) that was previously used is unsuitable for providing access to data as well as to provide solutions to decision making (Jarke, 2000).
Data warehousing is different from the operating systems with regards to the fact that it involves the usage of many different types of operating systems and its processing in order to integrate and display the appropriate results. Although there are certain data warehouses that are software copies of the operating system itself (and therefore ineffective), it has been determined that data warehouses have a different type of requirements, customers, and configuration than operating systems (Kimball & Ross, 2002). This essay explores warehouses and their rationale, structure and usage briefly in order to define the need for high functioning data warehouses.
Rationale:
The reasons for using data warehouses are more than it being just a different means of getting access to information. A data warehouse is undoubtedly an efficient means of dealing with information for various employees of an organisation. It is designed primarily in order to cumulate a set of information from different sources into one coherent arrangement which maintains the scrutiny as well as administrative processes in an organisation (Perkins, 2013).
The primary rationale for using data warehouses constitutes the fact that data warehousing provides accurate and cost-effective decisions in organisations with complex structures as it provides easily computed decisions in very little time. It also improves the execution of decision making based on the information of the current amount of assets and liability a company possesses before taking prompt decisions. Data warehousing is one of the most intelligent ways through which business plans can be altered since they alarm of discrepancies in dealings mid-way with the overview of all integrated information (Wenz, 1996).
In an era of brutal competition amongst businesses, customer growth can only arise if the competition is duly tackled and the customers convinced that the product of the selling company is better than all others. Moreover, with programs such as data warehouses, the companies can keep track of their customers’ satisfaction and affect the way that customers behave by giving them the means to try various methods of trying, using and buying products. The aforementioned methods of customer involvement using data warehouses would increase customer growth overall and prove to be beneficial for all organisations (Peppers & Rogers, 1998).
Structure:
Data warehouses are structured in a way that mimics the image of a supply chain program. The data that is received from the operating systems is deemed as the result of operating systems or other sources and is housed provisionally in a data warehouse. It is then given from these warehouses to the customers or the end users through the data marts.
The structure of a data warehouse includes : operational systems or external sources through which data that is to be stored and processed can be obtained; extract processes which obtain and confine the data to the data warehouse every day after having compiled the data in a particularly steady format; central data warehouse which controls the decision making processes and presents the complete picture of all the amalgamated and integrated data to data marts; load processes which deliver the data from the central data process to data marts and finally data marts which provide the data to the end users in a way that can be analysed by the customers.
Data marts may be executed through the usage of database management systems (DBMS) or online analytical processing (OLAP). The end users then analyse and form queries based on the data that is stored in the data warehouses (Moody & Kortnik, 2000).
Data warehouses are constantly being improved ever since the concepts proposed in the twentieth century. The traditional OLAP and OLTP environment were deemed…
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