Are Data Warehouses a Dying Breed?
Written By: Tammy Salvo
For the past few years, we’ve read, heard, and seen countless discussions on the status of the traditional data warehouse. Some argue vehemently, “Data Warehouses WILL NOT DIE!” The opposing side declares, “Convert or Be Left Behind!” So who is right? Will data warehouses survive or become a new exhibit at the Museum of Natural History as its fossils are excavated from basements and storage centers?
The Beloved Data Warehouse
Data warehouses were constructed to aggregate large amounts of data to a single repository from which reports and analytics could be processed. Originally developed in the 1970’s and implemented in the 1980’s, data warehouses have become as common in organizations as TV’s are in homes. However, most of us no longer watch our favorite shows on a floor-space-consuming, rabbit-ear-wearing, tin foil-accentuated, black and white boob tube. So why should we manage our 2014 data with 1980’s technology?
Previously, there were no viable alternatives to aggregating data from different sources for the purpose of monitoring operations and reporting across ecosystems of data. Investing countless hours, dollars, and resources to build warehouses, we painstakingly associated and constructed every possible schema, structured, normalized, and standardized the data only to deliver a highly-inflexible, virtually un-changeable configuration for static reporting purposes. Since data warehouses contain highly valuable information, we have accepted the costly investment and adapted the speed and functionality as limited as it may be. They have become like family to us. Can we really let them go?
Meet the New Neighbors – Data Federation
With the introduction of Big Data, organizations seek to find alternative solutions – better solutions which allow the flexibility to extract the exact information they want, at the point in time they need it, in the format they want it. As competition escalates, leadership requires insights-on-demand. With greater variations of data and volumes that increase every moment, we need more efficient means to ask the tough questions, on-demand accessibility, and the ability to make proactive decisions from the intelligence revealed.
Newer Data Federation technologies provide stand-alone systems, which serve as universal repositories to collect data. Agnostic to location, format, or structure these systems eliminate investments in data association, normalization, transformation, and modeling. Furthermore, with the ability to tap into existing data warehouses, these solutions not only improve operations by delivering insight instantaneously, they also leverage existing systems to extend the investment previously made. Data Federation not only becomes the new kid on the block, but it has also made friends with its neighbors, the DW’s.
What are your thoughts?
So let’s survey the group with a show of hands? How many are on the “Long Live Data Warehouses!” campaign, and how many are on the “Data Federation or Bust!” campaign?
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