Re: Datamart vs OLAP cubes?
From: guser78 <qazmlp1209_at_rediffmail.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:55:17 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <985161a2-912d-478d-b849-9015e14349f4_at_8g2000yqz.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 30, 11:27 am, guser78 <qazmlp1..._at_rediffmail.com> wrote:
> In some of the other posts that I have posted, I have mentioned the
> business usecase that I'm dealing with.
> Anyway, here is a brief overview of what we are working on:
>
> Our Dataware house contains the data retrieved from many data
> sources, and all the data are somehow related to the information
> specific to our Customers.
>
> We have a marketing application running, and this requires summary
> information on each of the Customer, like whether he is a ''Heavy
> Buyer; Frequent buyer; Chocolate lover; Smoker'.
>
> To calculate the above characteristics, we have to keep evaluating the
> specific attributes in the Datawarehouse.
> Also, due to the high performance requirements from the Marketing
> application, we have planned to have a dedicated server to store the
> pre-calculated characteristics information for all the subscribers.
> This server should get periodically updated based on the latest
> evaluation based on the data stored in the Data warehouse.
>
> What do you suggest, for this dedicated server?
> - Maintaining a 'Data mart' of all the characteristics, for all the
> Subscribers
> - Maintaining OLAP cubes, to represent all the characteristics, for
> all the Subscribers
>
> Which one do you suggest among the above-mentioned approaches? Do you
> have any other alternative suggestions? Why?
>
> I humbly agree that I'm not a database architect. But, I promise to
> go
> into the details, once I get a clear picture on what way I should go
> ahead with.
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:55:17 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <985161a2-912d-478d-b849-9015e14349f4_at_8g2000yqz.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 30, 11:27 am, guser78 <qazmlp1..._at_rediffmail.com> wrote:
> In some of the other posts that I have posted, I have mentioned the
> business usecase that I'm dealing with.
> Anyway, here is a brief overview of what we are working on:
>
> Our Dataware house contains the data retrieved from many data
> sources, and all the data are somehow related to the information
> specific to our Customers.
>
> We have a marketing application running, and this requires summary
> information on each of the Customer, like whether he is a ''Heavy
> Buyer; Frequent buyer; Chocolate lover; Smoker'.
>
> To calculate the above characteristics, we have to keep evaluating the
> specific attributes in the Datawarehouse.
> Also, due to the high performance requirements from the Marketing
> application, we have planned to have a dedicated server to store the
> pre-calculated characteristics information for all the subscribers.
> This server should get periodically updated based on the latest
> evaluation based on the data stored in the Data warehouse.
>
> What do you suggest, for this dedicated server?
> - Maintaining a 'Data mart' of all the characteristics, for all the
> Subscribers
> - Maintaining OLAP cubes, to represent all the characteristics, for
> all the Subscribers
>
> Which one do you suggest among the above-mentioned approaches? Do you
> have any other alternative suggestions? Why?
>
> I humbly agree that I'm not a database architect. But, I promise to
> go
> into the details, once I get a clear picture on what way I should go
> ahead with.
Some of the experts might suggest to have both Datamart and OLAP
cubes.
But, my concern is that when the ETL layer which loads the data from a
Data warehouse, can already to the pre-calculations and store the
Customer characteristics directly in the Data mart. When this is
already done, why should I require OLAP cubes additionally?
Probably, now the comparison boils down to:
- ETL layer performing pre-calculations and storing into Data mart VS
- ETL layer just extracting selected raw attributes into Datamart and forming OLAP cubes with the calculations
Please pour-in your suggestions. Thanks Received on Tue Mar 30 2010 - 02:55:17 CDT