Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
6
Data Warehousing Revisited
The information links are like nerves that pervade and help to animate the human organism.
The sensors and monitors are analogous to the human senses that put us in touch with
the world. Databases correspond to memory; the information processors perform the
function of human reasoning and comprehension. Once the postmodern infrastructure is
reasonably integrated, it will greatly exceed human intelligence in reach, acuity, capacity,
and precision.
—Albert Borgman,
Crossing the Postmodern Divide
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
INTRODUCTION
The irst part of this topic introduced the world of Big Data; its complexities, processing techniques,
and technologies; and case studies on Big Data. This chapter reintroduces you to the world of data
warehousing. We look at the concept and evolution of the data warehouse over the last three dec-
ades. Since the days of punch cards to the writing of this topic, there has been one fundamental
struggle: managing data and deriving timely value. The last three decades have created many tip-
ping points in technology that have evolved the growth of data management including data warehous-
ing. Companies have invested millions of dollars into creating data warehouses and these investments
need to be leveraged for solving the right problems.
Prior to the advent of electronic data processing, companies used to manage their customers more
by customer loyalty of making purchases at the same store for products, and used to track inventory
using traditional bookkeeping methods. At that time, population demographics were small and buying
trends for products and services were limited. When the early days of electronic data processing came
about in the early 1950s, initial systems were based on punch cards. The benefit of the systems was
their ability to start managing pockets of businesses in electronic formats. The downside was the pro-
liferation of multiple stores of data on punch cards that reflected different values, and damage to the
paper would mean loss of data. We quickly evolved from the punch cards to magnetic tapes that gave
better data storage techniques, yet were not able to control the proliferation of different formats of
data. From magnetic tapes we evolved to disks where we could store data. Along the way the appli-
cations that generated and controlled data production from the front-end perspective moved quickly
from simple niche languages to declarative programming languages.
Tracking along the progress of the storage and programming languages, the applications to man-
age customers, employees, inventory, suppliers, finances, and sales evolved. The only issue with the
data was it could not be analyzed for historical trends, as the data was updated in multiple cycles.
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