What are the components of a data warehouse
The architecture of a data warehouse can be very complex for large enterprises, but the basic components and processes are the same. Data is extracted from the source system(s), transformed into an analytical friendly format and loaded into a data warehouse database. This process is referred to as the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process. To ensure value from this process is achieved in the shortest amount of time, very specific business metrics should be prioritised rather than building a solution that aims to answer all questions that could one day be asked from the data.
Using the data within the data warehouse
Once the data is made available in the data warehouse, information workers and decision makers can use the data to get get answers to common questions, but also look for trends that could assist in your medium to long term business strategy. Data can be accessed through various mechanisms:
- Dasboard and Reporting tools (common examples are Power BI, SQL Server Reporting Services and Qlikview)
- Excel is a very commonly used analytical tool. The data warehouse can be used as a source for existing spredsheet solutions
- Users with knowledge of SQL(Structured Query Language) can write and execute ad-hoc queries against the data