What is Data Warehousing?
Data warehousing is combining data from multiple and usually varied sources into one comprehensive and easily manipulated database. Common accessing systems of data warehousing include queries, analysis and reporting. Because data warehousing creates one database in the end, the number of sources can be anything you want it to be, provided that the system can handle the volume, of course. The final result, however, is homogeneous data, which can be more easily manipulated. Data warehousing is commonly used by companies to analyze trends over time. In other words, companies may very well use data warehousing to view day-to-day operations, but its primary function is facilitating strategic planning resulting from long-term data overviews. From such overviews, business models, forecasts, and other reports and projections can be made. Routinely, because the data stored in data warehouses is intended to provide more overview-like reporting, the data is read-only. If you want to update the d
Data warehousing takes a relatively simple idea and incorporates it into the technological underpinnings of a company. The idea is that a unified view of all data that a company collects will help improve operations. If hiring data can be combined with sales data, the idea is that it might be possible to discover and exploit patterns in the combined entity. The most basic component in a data warehouse is a relational database. This database is the place where the data is stored. Relational databases are designed to be able to efficiently insert new data and locate existing data using a standardized query language. Given the fact that a company usually has very large amounts of data, the sizes of these databases can reach terabytes (trillions of bytes). Underneath the database is a maze of connections and transformations connecting the data warehouse with other systems. Because data in a company is often created and stored in functionally specific systems (e.g., a payroll system), the d
