Professorial Lecturer: Module 1_Introduction to Data

Dr. Domingo T. Balse, Jr, LPT Warehousing and Management Lecture Notes

Introduction to Data Warehousing and Management

1. Learning outcomes
•Apply the classroom policies and understand the course requirements and grading system
- Refer to the syllabus and the UDM Student Handbook
•Define Data Warehousing and Management and identify its importance

2. Introduction

In today’s rapidly changing corporate environment, organizations are turning to cloud-

based technologies for convenient data collection, reporting, and analysis. This is where Data
Warehousing comes in as a core component of business intelligence that enables businesses
to enhance their performance. It is important to understand what data warehouse is and why it
is evolving in the global marketplace.

3. What Is a Data Warehouse

Data warehouses serve as a central repository for storing and analyzing information to
make better informed decisions. An organization's data warehouse receives data from a
variety of sources, typically on a regular basis, including transactional systems, relational
databases, and other sources.

A data warehouse is a centralized storage system that allows for the storing, analyzing,
and interpreting of data in order to facilitate better decision-making. Transactional systems,
relational databases, and other sources provide data into data warehouses on a regular basis.

A data warehouse is a type of data management system that facilitates and supports
business intelligence (BI) activities, specifically analysis. Data warehouses are primarily
designed to facilitate searches and analyses and usually contain large amounts of historical
data.

A data warehouse can be defined as a collection of organizational data and information

extracted from operational sources and external data sources. The data is periodically pulled
from various internal applications like sales, marketing, and finance; customer-interface
applications; as well as external partner systems. This data is then made available for decision-
makers to access and analyze.

So what is data warehouse? For a start, it is a comprehensive repository of current and

historical information that is designed to enhance an organization’s performance.

4. Key Characteristics of Data Warehouse

The main characteristics of a data warehouse are as follows:

1. Subject-Oriented

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 Professorial Lecturer: Module 1_Introduction to Data
Dr. Domingo T. Balse, Jr, LPT Warehousing and Management Lecture Notes

A data warehouse is subject-oriented since it provides topic-wise information rather than

the overall processes of a business. Such subjects may be sales, promotion, inventory, etc. For
example, if you want to analyze your company’s sales data, you need to build a data warehouse
that concentrates on sales. Such a warehouse would provide valuable information like ‘who was
your best customer last year?’ or ‘who is likely to be your best customer in the coming year?’

2. Integrated
A data warehouse is developed by integrating data from varied sources into a consistent
format. The data must be stored in the warehouse in a consistent and universally acceptable
manner in terms of naming, format, and coding. This facilitates effective data analysis.

3. Non-Volatile
Data once entered into a data warehouse must remain unchanged. All data is read-only.
Previous data is not erased when current data is entered. This helps you to analyze what has
happened and when.

4. Time-Variant
The data stored in a data warehouse is documented with an element of time, either
explicitly or implicitly. An example of time variance in Data Warehouse is exhibited in the Primary
Key, which must have an element of time like the day, week, or month.

5. Database vs. Data Warehouse

Although a data warehouse and a traditional database share some similarities, they need
not be the same idea. The main difference is that in a database, data is collected for multiple
transactional purposes. However, in a data warehouse, data is collected on an extensive scale to
perform analytics. Databases provide real-time data, while warehouses store data to be accessed
for big analytical queries.

Data warehouse is an example of an online analytical processing (OLAP) system or an

online database query answering system. Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) is an online
database modifying system, for example, ATM.

6. Benefits of Data Warehouse

Wondering why businesses need data warehousing? Well, there are several benefits of data
warehouse for end users.

 Improved data consistency

 Better business decisions
 Easier access to enterprise data for end-users
 Better documentation of data
 Reduced computer costs and higher productivity
 Enabling end-users to ask ad-hoc queries or reports without deterring the performance of
operational systems
 Collection of related data from various sources into a place
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 Professorial Lecturer: Module 1_Introduction to Data
Dr. Domingo T. Balse, Jr, LPT Warehousing and Management Lecture Notes

Companies having dedicated Data Warehouse teams emerge ahead of others in key areas of
product development, pricing, marketing, production time, historical analysis, forecasting, and customer
satisfaction. Though data warehouses can be slightly expensive, they pay in the long run.

7. Build Your Career in Data Warehousing

If you are looking to work as a Business Intelligence (BI) professional or learn data warehousing,
you have many exciting career options available. Data architects, database administrators, coders, and
analysts are some of the most sought-after BI professionals.

8. Quiz / Activity

References

Book References:
Corr, Lawrence & Jim Stagnitto (2011). Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional
Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema
Jarke , Matthias, Maurizio Lenzerini , Yannis Vassiliou & Panos Vassiliadis (2003). Fundamentals
of Data Warehouses. Springer Berlin Heidelberg Publishing. ISBNs 978-3-54-042089-7,
978-3-64-207564-3, 978-3-66-205153-5. DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-05153-5
Jukic,Nenad, Susan Vrbsky & Svetlozar Nestorov (2016). Database Systems: Introduction to
Databases and Data Warehouses.
Kimball, Ralp (2013). The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Definitive Guide to Dimensional
Modeling, 3rd Edition
Linstedt, Daniel & Michael Olschimke (2015). Building a Scalable Data Warehouse with Data
Vault 2.0
Ponniah, Paulraj (2001). Data Warehousing Fundamentals: A Comprehensive Guide for IT
Professionals, 1st Edition. Wiley-Interscience Publishing

Internet Resources:
https://www.kimballgroup.com/data-warehouse-business-intelligence-resources/kimball-
techniques/dw-bi-lifecycle-method/
https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2015/07/guide-data-visualization-r/
https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2015/08/cheat-sheet-data-visualization-r/
https://www.techadvisory.org/2015/03/benefits-of-data-warehouses-for-business/
https://whatisdbms.com/9-disadvantages-and-limitations-of-data-warehouse/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTs5zjSXnvs&t=293s&list=WL&index=20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l74BAViTVns&t=194s&list=WL&index=21

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