DATA WAREHOUSING

A data warehouse is a critical component of a data management system. It’s designed to support business intelligence (BI) activities, including analytics. Businesses with large volumes of historical data rely on data warehouses when performing queries and analyses. The data contained in these warehouses often comes from a number of disparate sources, from application log files to transactions.

With a data warehouse, your business will have all of its historical data centralized and consolidated into one convenient location. Your teams will also have the ability to glean insights from these massive stores of data for timely and accurate decision making. Everyone from data scientists to business analysts a leverage the data warehouse as a single source of truth for the organization.

Components of the Data Warehouse

Most data warehouses consist of the following key features:

• A relational database where data is stored and managed
• An extraction, loading, and transformation solution that arranges data for analysis
• Capabilities for analysis, reporting, and data mining
• Tools for visualizing and sharing data
• Sophisticated tools for generating actionable insights based, such as apps that use artificial intelligence

Data warehouses can be built based on several different types of architecture, depending on your business needs. A simple architecture consists of a central repository with metadata, summary data, and raw data. Data is received from sources on one side and accessed by end users on the other. In a simple data warehouse with a staging area, operational data is cleaned prior to entering the warehouse.

Some data warehouses feature a hub and spoke design, in which data marts are added to the central repository so that companies can customize the warehouse for different departments or lines of business. Finally, there are also sandboxes, in which companies have a private and secure space to quickly explore data without following specific requirements of the rest of the data warehouse. The best type(s) for your organization will depend on your specific data sources and data management needs.

Having a well-designed data warehouse enables quick queries and data analysis. It allows users to filter data for a more granular look into the key details they need to analyze. On the other hand, they can also look at larger sets of data for trending and other high-level overviews. The data warehouse is an integral component of any BI environment which enables users to generate reports, create compelling dashboards, and leverage other interfaces.

IT ArchiTeks offers data warehousing consulting services catered to the unique needs of your business. Each client is different; sometimes, businesses may already have an established data team that simply needs guidance or expertise. In other scenarios, clients may prefer to have us work hands-on alongside their team to provide knowledge and oversee a project. And in some cases, we may provide concierge service in which we handle all aspects of a project from start to finish.

No matter what your needs entail, you can turn to IT ArchiTeks for comprehensive data warehousing services. We specialize in the design and implementation of data warehouses.

If your organization is like most others, it may be data-rich but lack the key insights that make that data meaningful. Data is one of your organization’s best assets, but it means little if you can’t use it for decision making. We can help you derive more value from your data and solve business reporting issues like data availability, lacking a central source of truth, and being able to access insights consistently. Our team is deeply experienced in all aspects of data warehousing, from preliminary design to hands-on development and deployment.

Get started on today by requesting a Data Warehouse Assessment. This brief checkup on your existing or in-development data warehouse can determine if you’re on the right track or if any adjustments can be made to help you get even more from your data. Contact us for more information.