Data Warehouse (part 2): Architecture

Moving on all the basic concepts from part 1, let’s now move on towards a more interesting part of data warehouse: Data Warehouse Architecture

Data Warehouse Architecture

DM: data mart, DW: data warehouse

Centralized Data Warehouse

A Centralized Data Warehouse is a data warehousing implementation wherein a single data warehouse serves the needs of several separate business unites simultaneously using a single data model that spans the needs of multiple business divisions.

It is the default go-to option. In short, centralized data warehouse will meet these requirements:

• Single database
• One stop shopping
• Modern technology

Challenges:

• Ripple effects
• High data governance
• High cross-org cooperation

Centralized data warehouse vs. independent data mart

We have 2 types of data mart:

• Dependent: Sourced from data warehouse, (mostly) uniform data across marts and architecturally straightforward.
• Independent: Sourced directly from applications and systems; little or no uniform across marts; “spagetti” architecture