BASIC DEFINITIONS

DWH : is a repository of integrated information, specifically structured for queries and analysis. Data and information are extracted from heterogeneous sources as they are generated. This makes it much easier and more efficient to run queries over data that originally came from different sources. Data Mart : is a collection of subject areas organized for decision support based on the needs of a given department. Ex : sales, marketing etc. the data mart is designed to suit the needs of a department. Data mart is much less granular than the ware house data Data Warehouse : is used on an enterprise level, while data marts is used on a business division / department level. Data warehouses are arranged around the corporate subject areas found in the corporate data model. Data warehouses contain more detail information while most data marts contain more summarized or aggregated data. OLTP : Online Transaction Processing. This is standard, normalized database structure. OLTP is designed for Transactions, which means that inserts, updates and deletes must be fast. OLAP : Online Analytical Processing. Read-only, historical, aggregated data. Fact Table : contain the quantitative measures about the business Dimension Table : descriptive data about the facts (business) Conformed dimensions : dimension table shared by fact tables.. these tables connect separate star schemas into an enterprise star schema. Star Schema : is a set of tables comprised of a single, central fact table surrounded by de-normalized dimensions. Star schema implement dimensional data structures with de-normalized dimensions Snow Flake : is a set of tables comprised of a single, central fact table surrounded by normalized dimension hierarchies. Snowflake schema implement dimensional data structures with fully normailized dimensions. Staging Area : it is the work place where raw data is brought in, cleaned, combined, archived and exported to one or more data marts. The purpose of data staging area is to get data ready for loading into a presentation layer. Queries : The DWH contains 2 types of queries. There will be fixed queries that are clearly defined and well understood, such as regular reports, canned queries and common aggregations. There will also be ad hoc queries that are unpredictable, both in quantity and frequency. Ad Hoc Query : are the starting point for any analysis into a database. The ability to run any query when desired and expect a reasonable response that makes the data warehouse worthwhile and makes the design such a significant challenge. The end-user access tools are capable of automatically generating the database query that answers any question posted by the user. Canned Queries : are pre-defined queries. Canned queries contain prompts that allow you to customize the query for your specific needs Kimball (Bottom up) vs Inmon (Top down) approaches :

Acc. To Ralph Kimball, when you plan to design analytical solutions for an enterprise, try building data marts. When you have 3 or 4 such data marts, you would be having an enterprise wide data warehouse built up automatically without time and effort from exclusively spent on building the EDWH. Because the time required for building a data mart is lesser than for an EDWH. INMON : try to build an Enterprise wide Data warehouse first and all the data marts will be the subsets of the EDWH. Acc. To him, independent data marts cannot make up an enterprise data warehouse under any circumstance, but they will remain isolated pieces of information stove pieces