What is a Data Warehouse?
What is a Data Warehouse?
A digital storage system that connects and manages a large amount of data from multiple sources. A data warehouse enables and supports business intelligent activities and analytics.
Data Warehouse Details
A Data Warehouse is typically used to connect, store and analyze critical business data. It is an electronic storage vault for high-volume business data. The data stores are different from an organization's operational data store. They store current and historical data which might not be accessible through the traditional operational data store. Developed in the 1980s to transition data, data warehouses have now become a key tool in decision making.
Data Warehousing is transforming data into meaningful information that the consumers can use to ensure better product delivery. These warehouses store current and historical data in central repositories, which enterprise workers also use to make key business decisions.
A Data Warehouse works as the central repository which receives information from one or more data sources. Data that flows into this repository can be structured, semi-structured, or completely unstructured. This data is processed and transformed into a form that enables users to access it through Business Intelligence tools and SQuirreL clients.
Real-World Example of Data Warehouse
Amazon Redshift is a popular data warehousing solution on the market today. The power key analytical business is one of several leading organizations in the world. Some of the biggest brands using Redshift today include McDonald's, Intuit, Yelp, and Lyft. Redshift offers a class-leading user experience. Redshift allows developers and business leaders to query semi-structured and structured data for their business needs.
Google BigQuery is another robust data warehousing solution. It is part of Google's cloud platform environment. The BigQuery platform offers great integration with machine learning tools essential for businesses working in the artificial intelligence environment. Its highly scalable and serverless cloud data warehouse is ideal for companies that want to keep costs low and have accessible data anywhere and at any time.
IBM Db2 Warehouse is a brilliant relational database solution that delivers high-quality analytics and data management for businesses worldwide. It offers support for a wide range of operating systems. Db2 warehouse integrates with the in-memory columnar database engine from IBM, making it suitable for high-performance database solutions.
Types of Data Warehouse
There are three types of data warehouses. They are:
Enterprise Data Warehouse: An enterprise data warehouse is a centralized warehouse. An enterprise data store offers a unified approach for organizing and representing business data. They provide a critical decision support service across the enterprise which drives key business decisions.
Operational Data Store: An operational data store is a data store created for cases where an Enterprise Data Warehouse system cannot support an organization's reporting needs. An operational data store is refreshed in real-time, making it preferable for routine business activities like storing and updating employee records.
Data Mart: Data Mart is a subset of the Data Warehouse. A data mart is designed for a particular line of business like sales, finance, etc. Data collected by a Data Mart can be independent or retrieved from a central enterprise data store.