Load and Query question

Hi List,

I have a semantic question in a DWH environment. At the current place I work, the tables have been de-normalized to such an extent that they may not get qualified as 2NF even. Sure there are PK but they are there more to provide a security implementation rather than follow the relational priciples. Out of 200+ tables there is not one dimension or a fact or even one referential key. Each table has about 130+ columns out of which equal quantities are codes and descriptions.

The argument in favor the current design is that joins are expensive. However from a DBA's perspective would you rather have a relational model which would help really large load volumes and get the data out there faster or go with a totally denormalized structure and don't care about when the data is delivered ?

On an average day, the load takes more than 10+ hours and volumes are presently at 8mil+ rows everyday. The env is Solaris 9, Oracle 10.2.0.1.0

Thanks

Shreeni

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