CHAPTER 7

The Data Warehouse Component

The most prominent architectural component of the corporate information factory is that of the data warehouse. It is the basis for all strategic DSS processing. In many cases, the data warehouse is the first place integration of data is achieved anywhere in the environment. It is also where much historical processing is done.

What Is the Data Warehouse?

The data warehouse is an architectural structure that supports the management of data that is:

Images   Subject-oriented

Images   Integrated

Images   Time-variant

Images   Nonvolatile

Images   Comprised of both summary and detailed data

The data warehouse exists to support management’s decisions which, in turn, support the strategic planning processes of the corporation. Data flows into the data warehouse from the ODS and the I & T layer. The flow of data out of the data warehouse goes to the data marts. Finally, DSS analysts use the data found in the data mart to support such activities as customer segmentation and scoring, product ...

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