Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8, Second Edition

Other Data Warehouse Software

A data warehouse isn’t built with a single software product, nor is it simply a database. Although Oracle Corporation markets certain product bundles, such as the Oracle Data Mart Suites, as “data warehouse software,” a look under the covers reveals that these are simply multiple products bundled together to enable the base functionality required in a data warehouse or data mart. In addition to the database capabilities we’ve described, if you’re going to build an effective data warehouse topology like the one we’ve outlined, the software must be able to do the following:

Extract data from operational data sources

The extraction process is fairly straightforward but can be significantly optimized, since it typically involves moving large amounts of data.

Transform and/or cleanse data

Because the data in a data warehouse can come from many different sources, the data must frequently be converted into a common format. Because of inherent problems in legacy systems, the original data may also have to be cleaned up by eliminating or modifying invalid values.

Transport data from OLTP systems to the data warehouse/marts

As with the extraction process, the transportation process can be optimized for performance.

Provide basic reporting

Basic reporting can give you the same reporting capabilities as a normal database.

Provide OLAP for multidimensional analysis

OLAP tools give you the specialized type of analysis you need to spot business changes and trends. These ...