Data is everywhere. Every business needs data to run their operations successfully. A study by IBM estimates that 90% of the world’s data had been created in the preceding two years. Today, data volumes, velocity variety of data sources are increasing exponentially. Social media, shopping sites, mobile apps, websites, wearables, IoT devices, there are relatively diverse data sources; all these data is streaming in real time.
With the volume being so huge, Data Analysts are spending a lot of time managing it that they have nearly no time for analyzing it (Data Analytics). The only possible, popular and capable solution is data warehousing. A lot of IT professionals believe that data warehousing helps companies stay ahead in competition.
In this blog we will explain what a data warehouse is, what are its types, its significance and a lot more.
What is Data Warehouse?
Also known as an enterprise data warehouse, it is a technological solution that helps analysts have all data consolidated at one place. The Data Warehouse (DWH) is typically made of more than one or multiple data sources. It collects data across the organization, processes it, and prepares it to be used for various business purposes, ranging from reporting, analysis to dashboards.
A data warehouse, typically, stores structured data from myriad sources like CRM, ERP and OLTP. With data warehousing businesses can convert complex data into information they can use whenever and wherever needed.
Generally, data warehouse tools are known for sorting data depending on numerous topics like clients, business operations, products/services etc. Oracle, Teradata, Amazon Web Services, Azure Synapse Analytics are some of the popular data warehouse vendors in the industry.
What are different types of Data Warehouse?
While there are several data warehouses present, below are three most common and renowned data warehouses you must explore.
- Data Mart – A subset of data warehouse, Data Mart is typically used to store data of a geographical location, business unit, or area of operation. Data Mart helps in strengthening user responses and it also decreases the volume of data for data analysis. Data Mart is classified into three types such as dependent, independent and hybrid.
- Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) – It is a centralized place where businesses can findall information from multiple sources and applications. This stored data can be used for analytics and later will be used by users across the organization. The primary goal of EDW is to provide an outline of any particular object in the data model.
- Operational Data Store – Abbreviated as ODS, it aids accessing data directly from the database which also supports transaction processing. In this type data can be updated in real-time and can be utilized for operational monitoring.
Why is the Importance of Data Warehouse?
Data warehousing is the soul of Business Intelligence (BI), which helps businesses to improve accuracy, make sound decisions and enhance their returns.
Managing increased data volume can be tedious, time consuming, expensive and stressful for your company’s IT department. Hence, a data warehouse is the best choice to manage, control, and understand complex business data.