DATA WAREHOUSING FUNDAMENTALS: A Comprehensive Guide for IT Professionals

16.5. BUILDING A WEB-ENABLED DATA WAREHOUSE

Let us summarize what we have covered so far. We perceived how the Web has changed everything including the design and deployment of data warehouses. We understood how Web technology and data warehousing have converged, opening up remarkable possibilities. The primary purpose of the data warehouse is to provide information, and the Web makes the providing of information easy. What a nice combination of technologies! Now the value of your data warehouse can be extended to a wider array of users.

When we match up the features of the data warehouse with the characteristics of the Web, we observe that we have to do a number of things to the design and deployment methods to adapt the warehouse to the Web. We went through most of the tasks. The Web has changed the way information is delivered from the data warehouse. Web-based information delivery is more inclusive, much easier to use, but also different from the traditional methods. We have spent some time on Web-based information delivery. We also touched on OLAP in relation to the Web. So, where are we now? We are now ready to review considerations for building a Web-enabled data warehouse.

16.5.1. Nature of the Data Webhouse

In mid-l999, Dr. Ralph Kimball popularized a new term, "data Webhouse," which included the notion of a Web-enabled data warehouse. He declared that the data warehouse is taking central stage in the Web revolution. He went on to state that this requires restating and ...