Corporate Information Factory

Corporate Information Factory

by W. H. Inmon, Claudia Imhoff, Ryan Sousa
Released January 2001
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780471399612

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Book description

The "father of data warehousing" incorporates the latest technologies into his blueprint for integrated decision support systems

Today's corporate IT and data warehouse managers are required to make a small army of technologies work together to ensure fast and accurate information for business managers. Bill Inmon created the Corporate Information Factory to solve the needs of these managers. Since the First Edition, the design of the factory has grown and changed dramatically. This Second Edition, revised and expanded by 40% with five new chapters, incorporates these changes. This step-by-step guide will enable readers to connect their legacy systems with the data warehouse and deal with a host of new and changing technologies, including Web access mechanisms, e-commerce systems, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. The book also looks closely at exploration and data mining servers for analyzing customer behavior and departmental data marts for finance, sales, and marketing.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Chapter 1: Creating an Information Ecosystem
    1. Information Ecosystem Briefly Defined
    2. Shifting Business Landscape
      1. Consumer Demand
      2. Competition and Complexity
      3. Operating Efficiencies
    3. Responding to Change
    4. Corporate Information Factory
    5. People and Processes
    6. Summary
  8. Chapter 2: Introducing the Corporate Information Factory
    1. Data in the Corporate Information Factory
      1. External Data
      2. Reference Data
      3. Historical Data
      4. The Decision-Support System to Operational Feedback Loop
      5. The Flow of Data
    2. Variations to the Corporate Information Factory
    3. Operational Processing and DSS Processing
    4. Reporting in the Corporate Information Factory
    5. Corporate Information Factory Users
      1. Applications Users
      2. Decision-Support System/Informational Users
      3. Types of DSS Usage in the Corporate Information Factory Environment
    6. Centralized or Distributed?
    7. Data Modeling and the Corporate Information Factory
    8. Migrating to the Corporate Information Factory
    9. Structuring Data in the Corporate Information Factory
    10. Summary
  9. Chapter 3: The External World Component
    1. Transaction Producers
    2. A Taxonomy of Transactions
    3. Consumers of Information
    4. Who Are the Participants?
    5. Summary
  10. Chapter 4: The Applications Component
    1. Dated Applications
    2. Unintegrated Applications
    3. Applications’ Response Times
    4. Migrating from an Unintegrated State
    5. External Data, Metadata, and Applications
    6. Feeds into and out of the Applications Environment
    7. Summary
  11. Chapter 5: The Integration and Transformation Layer Component
    1. What Is the Integration and Transformation Layer?
      1. An Unstable Interface
    2. Feeds into and out of the Interface
    3. Complex Integration and Transformation Interface
    4. The Role of the Data Model
    5. Creating Metadata
      1. Automatic Creation of I & T Code
    6. Processing in the Integration and Transformation Interface
      1. Performing Key Transformations
      2. Creating Profile/Aggregate Records
      3. Encoding Structures
      4. Simple Reformatting
      5. Mathematical Conversion
      6. Resequencing Data
      7. Assigning Default Values
      8. Handling Multiple Data Sources
    7. Log Tapes As a Source
    8. Changing Platforms
      1. Who Is in Charge?
    9. Summary
  12. Chapter 6: The Operational Data Store Component
    1. What Is an Operational Data Store?
      1. Volatility
      2. Current-Valued
      3. Detailed Data
    2. Feeds into and out of the Operational Data Store
      1. The Integration and Transformation Layer Feed
    3. Different Classes of the Operational Data Store
      1. Class I Operational Data Store
      2. Class II Operational Data Store
      3. Class III Operational Data Store
      4. Class IV Operational Data Store
      5. Determining the Class
    4. Dynamic Summary Data
    5. Static Summary Data
    6. The Operational Data Store Workload
      1. Load Processing
      2. Update Processing
      3. Access Processing
      4. DSS Analysis Processing
    7. Different Processing Windows
      1. What Is a Homogeneous Workload?
    8. External Data in the Operational Data Store
    9. Summary
  13. Chapter 7: The Data Warehouse Component
    1. What Is the Data Warehouse?
      1. Subject Orientation
      2. Integration
      3. Time Variancy
      4. Historical Data
      5. Nonvolatility
      6. Containment of Summary and Detailed Data
    2. Data Warehouse Administration
    3. The Data Warehouse Drawn to Scale
    4. Feeds into and out of the Data Warehouse
      1. The Operational Data Store Feed
      2. The Integration and Transformation Layer Feed
      3. Feeds into the Data Mart
      4. Alternative Storage Feeds
      5. Exploration Warehouse Feeds
    5. Data in the Data Warehouse
    6. Processing Data in the Warehouse
    7. Managing Technological Challenges
      1. Archiving Data out of the Data Warehouse
    8. Summary
  14. Chapter 8: The Data Mart Component
    1. What Is a Data Mart?
      1. The Appeal of the Data Mart
    2. The Data Warehouse to the Data Mart Interface
    3. Different Kinds of Data Marts
      1. MOLAP Data Marts
      2. ROLAP Data Marts
    4. Star Join Schema and Data Marts
    5. Processing at the Data Mart
      1. Repetitive Processing
      2. Unpredictable Processing
    6. First Order, Second Order Data
    7. Metadata
    8. Summary
  15. Chapter 9: The Exploration and Data Mining Data Warehouse Components
    1. How the Explorer Handles Large Queries
    2. The Need for an Exploration Warehouse
      1. The Evolution of the Exploration Warehouse
      2. Feeding the Exploration Warehouse
      3. Isolating Explorer Processing
      4. When Is the Exploration Warehouse Needed?
      5. Freezing Exploration Data
      6. Granular Data in the Exploration Warehouse
    3. Loading Data into the Exploration Warehouse
      1. Skunk Works—the Only Way to Fly
    4. Data Marts and the Exploration Warehouse
    5. Exploration Warehouses and Technology
    6. Some Not So Obvious Benefits of the Exploration Warehouse
    7. Summary
  16. Chapter 10: The Alternative Storage Component
    1. Growth of Dormant Data
      1. Managing Dormant Data
      2. Finding the Dividing Line
      3. Where the Activity Monitor Fits
    2. Alternative Storage Technology
      1. Meta Content Data
      2. Cross Media Storage Manager
    3. Alternative Storage and Exploration Processing
    4. Why Use Alternative Storage?
      1. Saving Money
      2. Better Query Performance
      3. Keeping Lowest Level of Granularity
    5. Vendor Implementations
      1. Alternative Storage: Filetek
      2. Cross Media Management: Unitree
    6. Summary
  17. Chapter 11: The Internet/Intranet Components
    1. Issues of Communication
      1. Volume of Data
      2. Speed of Data
      3. Capacity of the Network
      4. Mode of Transport
      5. Cost of Telecommunication Lines
      6. Nature of the Transport
      7. Availability of the Fabric
    2. Who Uses the Communications Facilities?
    3. Summary
  18. Chapter 12: The Metadata Component
    1. What Is Metadata?
    2. The Conflict within Metadata
      1. Is Centralization the Answer?
      2. Is Autonomy the Answer?
      3. Achieving a Balance
      4. Differentiating Sharable and Autonomous Metadata
    3. Defining the System of Record
    4. Using Metadata
      1. Operational versus DSS Usage
    5. Versioning of Metadata
    6. Archiving and Metadata
    7. Capturing Metadata
    8. Meta-Process Information
      1. Uses at the Integration and Transformation Layer
      2. Uses within Applications
      3. Uses from the Data Warehouse to the Data Mart
    9. Summary
  19. Chapter 13: The Decision Support Capabilities
    1. Putting the Role of the Data Warehouse Into Context
      1. The Data Warehouse Adds Depth to Data
      2. The Dimension of History
      3. Easily Accessible Data
    2. Putting the Data Mart into Context
      1. Departmental Data Marts
      2. DSS Application Data Marts
      3. Similarities and Differences between Marts
      4. Pros and Cons of Each Type of Data Mart
    3. Database Designs for Data Marts
    4. Commercial Decision Support Applications
      1. ERP Analytical Applications
      2. e-Business Analytic Applications
    5. Interaction of the Data Warehouse and the Operational Data Store
      1. Examples of Class IV Operational Data Stores
    6. What Is an "Oper-Mart"?
    7. Off-the-Shelf Applications
      1. Guidelines for Choosing the Right Off-the-Shelf Decision Support Application
    8. Summary
  20. Chapter 14: Variations to the Corporate Information Factory
    1. Should We Build the Data Mart or the Data Warehouse First?
      1. Building the Data Mart First
      2. Building the Data Mart in Conjunction with the Data Warehouse
    2. Should We Combine the Data Warehouse and the Operational Data Store?
      1. The Combination of Incompatible Transaction Types
      2. The Forced Combination of Incompatible Workload Types
    3. Summary
  21. Chapter 15: Building the Corporate Information Factory
    1. The Strategic Plan
      1. Applications Environment
      2. Operational Data Store
      3. Data Warehouse and Data Mart
    2. The Strategic Action
    3. Development Lifecycles
    4. Managing Different Organizational Units
    5. Deploying Databases
      1. The General-Purpose DBMS Strategy
    6. Different Hardware Platforms
    7. Displaying Information
    8. Summary
  22. Chapter 16: Managing the Corporate Information Factory
    1. Ongoing Management—Applications
    2. Ongoing Management—The Integration and Transformation Layer
      1. Creating and Maintaining the Interface
      2. Executing the Code
      3. The Production of Metadata
    3. Ongoing Management—The Operational Data Store
    4. Ongoing Management—The Data Warehouse
    5. Ongoing Management—The Data Mart
    6. Ongoing Management—Internet and Intranet
    7. Monitoring the Corporate Information Factory
    8. Security within the Corporate Information Factory
    9. Archival Processing
      1. Application Archiving
      2. Operational Data Store Archiving
      3. Data Warehouse Archiving
      4. Data Mart Archiving
      5. Archiving Medium
    10. Summary
  23. Chapter 17: Multiple Data Warehouses across a Large Enterprise
    1. Define the Need for Integration
    2. Define the Enterprise Framework
      1. Business Domain
      2. Occurrences and Types of Data
      3. Owned Data
      4. Shared Data
      5. Sharing Data across Multiple Data Warehouses
      6. Related Occurrences of Data
      7. Other Relationships
    3. Define the System of Record
    4. Local Data Warehouses
      1. A Variation of a "Pure" Local Data Warehouse
    5. Global Data Warehouses
    6. Types of Warehouses in the Enterprise
      1. A Simple Local Data Warehouse
      2. A Simple Global Data Warehouse
      3. Multiple Unrelated Local Data Warehouses
      4. Relationship between Business Domains
      5. Intersecting Interests
      6. An Extended Global Warehouse
    7. Other Important Issues in Enterprise-Wide Architecture
    8. Summary
  24. Appendix A CIF Architecture Guidelines
  25. Glossary
  26. Recommended Reading
  27. Index
  28. Footnote

Product information

  • Title: Corporate Information Factory
  • Author(s): W. H. Inmon, Claudia Imhoff, Ryan Sousa
  • Release date: January 2001
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780471399612