Data Warehouse Components

Typical Data Warehouse Components 

 

 

Data Warehouse Components

 

1. Source Systems

Source systems may be in the form of data existing in:

Production operational systems within an organization

Archives

Internal files not directly associated with company operational systems, such as individual spreadsheets and workbooks

External data from outside the company

2. Data Staging Area

The data staging area is analogous to a kitchen of a restaurant where raw food products are transformed into a fine meal. In a data warehouse, raw operational data is transformed into a warehouse deliverable analytical data fit for query and consumption.

It is both a storage area and a set of processes commonly known as Extract-Transformation-Load (ETL). It is off limits to business users and it is not suitable for querying and reporting. ETL is covered in detail later in the session. It may be an operational data store (ODS) environment, a set of flat files, a series of tables in a relational database server, or proprietary data structures used by data staging tools.

A normalized database for data staging area is acceptable.