Data Warehouse Design Solutions

14

BUILDING AN ENTERPRISE DATA WAREHOUSE

We have taken great pains in this book to be helpful without being particularly controversial. Other than our obvious preference for the star schema design techniques first popularized by Dr. Ralph Kimball, we have attempted to avoid the great debates of the data warehouse world. It has been our professional experience that much of what passes for debate is simply an attempt to gain favor for certain products under the guise of impartiality. In this chapter, we will reveal, as is only fair to the reader, our opinions. The purpose of the chapter is to present a coherent approach to constructing an enterprise data warehouse that has a reasonable chance for success. It is not the only approach, but it is one that we have seen work. The ideas in this chapter are drawn largely from the work of Dr. Kimball, our colleague Greg Jones, and our own experiences.

What is an enterprise data warehouse? Rather than burning brain cells in a jargon-laced recitation, we will instead lay down a simple definition and use it to frame our discussion.

Key Business Term

Enterprise data warehouse. A planned, integrated, managed store of relevant corporate data optimized for analysis, query, and reporting functions.

The optimal design for an enterprise data warehouse is an integrated series of conformed dimension tables and transaction-grained fact tables that provide ...