What is data warehousing?
Data warehousing is the collection of business data that organizations use to make decisions. Usually, the data collected within a data warehouse has various source departments such as marketing, sales, finance, customer care and others.
Data is usually collected by the warehouse itself at predetermined intervals. Once pulled, the data is formatted to match the data already in place in the warehouse, after which, the processed data will be made available to decision-makers. The intervals for data pulling can be adjusted according to the needs of the organizations.
Advantages of using warehouses include more reliable data since data sources are constantly added and updated while it also makes the decision-making process faster. The expedited process is made possible through the consistency in data formats. The consistent format of the different data streams makes it possible for the data to be analyzed in bulk. This provides decision-makers with a more complete dataset to base decisions on.
Some misconceptions
Data warehouses often get compared to databases and data lakes. However, there is a difference between the three media. Unlike data warehouses, data lakes store raw and unstructured data in its original format. The below table highlights the differences between databases and data warehouses;
| Databases | Data Warehouse | |
| What is it |
Used for transactional purposes with read/write access |
Combined transactional data, formatted and stored for analytics |
| Why it’s used | Allows the quick recording and retrieval | Stores data from many databases for easier analytics |
| Types | .csv, html, excel spreadsheets | Analytical database that layers on top of transactional databases |
The Future of Warehousing – Snowflake & Moving to the Cloud
An increasing number of businesses are moving their operations to the cloud and this includes their databases too. Some of the advantages that cloud computing offers include flexibility, collaboration, accessibility and real-time data. Snowflake is just one of many options that offer cloud warehousing.
By using Snowflake, you will be eliminating the risks of using on-premises warehouse storage. This also eliminates the need to assign funds to acquire hardware and software to manage the locally-stored data; no maintenance is needed and upgrades are done automatically by the cloud software itself.
The Snowflake software combines three factors into one cost-effective model; data warehousing, big data platforms and cloud elasticity. Using a pay-as-you-go model, Snowflake gives you access to millions of gigabytes of data simultaneously, which you can access 200 times faster than local-based solutions. All this for 10 times less the cost of cloudless solutions.
All upgrades, management and tuning are handled by the software itself while there is no need for any type of hardware to be installed. Lastly, since Snowflake operates on SQL, if your company already makes use of the platform, your team would not need to be re-skilled to accommodate the new system.
To learn more about Snowflake, for training or for other help with the software send us an email on info@imovo.com.mt or call +356 22488300.
