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Data Warehouses (EDW vs DataMarts)

May 19, 2011/1 Comment/in Data Warehousing, Posts /by Adam Getz

There are two fundamental types of data warehouses:: • Enterprise Data Warehouses (EDW); • Data Marts

Overview of Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and Data Marts

Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW): The enterprise data warehouse is typically a large organization-wide database repository that crosses over every business function and includes data from every organizational unit, division, and department. In essence, an enterprise data warehouse is a substantially large repository of historical and current transaction data of an entire organization. As an implementation of an enterprise data warehouse is commonly strategic in nature, the volume of data in enterprise data warehouses tends to be quite large. Enterprise data warehouses can contain hundreds of gigabytes, terabytes, and sometimes even petabytes of data.

Data Mart: A data mart is a collection of subject areas organized for decision support based on the needs of a given department or office. Many times, a data mart will serve as the reporting and analytical solution for a particular department within an organization, such as accounting, sales, customer service, and/or marketing. For the most part, data marts are designed with just enough data entities, fields, and records to satisfy one department’s requirements.

There are two kinds of data marts that exist — dependent and independent:
• A dependent data mart is one whose source is another data warehouse, and all dependent data marts within an organization are typically fed by the same source — the enterprise data warehouse.

• An independent data mart is one whose source is directly from transactional systems, legacy applications, or external data feeds.

Data Federation Technology – Pros and Cons

May 16, 2011/3 Comments/in Data Integration, Posts /by Adam Getz


Data federation is a category of data integration technology that provides the ability to query and aggregate data from disparate sources in a virtual database so it can be used by business intelligence, reporting, or analysis applications in real-time. The virtual database created by data federation technology doesn’t contain the data itself. Instead, it contains information or metadata about the actual data and its location. The actual data is physically left in place within its source data repository.

Data federation is used to create virtualized and integrated views of data and allows for execution of distributed queries against multiple data sources (relational databases, enterprise applications, data warehouses, documents, XML) at the same time. Data federation allows for accesses to data without physical movement of data and provides a layer of abstraction above the physical implementation of data.

Data federation is synonymous with other technologies and commonly referred to as …: • Data Virtualization; • Enterprise Information Integration (EII)

Pros of Data Federation

• Access current and transactional data stored in multiple sources

• Does not require movement of data (No ETL)

• Only requested data returned

• Real-time data access

• Quicker development time – supports incremental development

• Reduces data storage and data transfer

Cons of Data Federation

• Still queries against original data sources

• Only contains as much data as source system contains

• If data is archived off source, data is no longer available in federation tool

• Query performance is not as good as a data warehouse

• High system performance transferred to an application server from a database server

General Data Appliance / Complimentary Database Engine – Datatupia

May 10, 2011/0 Comments/in Data Warehouse Appliance, Posts /by Adam Getz


A completely unique data warehouse appliance is provided by Datatupia. Rather than providing a solution that provides an organization a complete data warehouse solution, Datatupia’s solution compliments existing data warehouse deployments within an organization.

Dataupia’s flagship product, Satori Server

Datatupia is a data warehouse appliance in the sense that it combines software and hardware components on a rack-mounted server hardware. Additionally, Satori Server includes an embedded copy of the Linux operating system, a custom database engine, an aggregation engine, built-in storage, and parallel processors. But in contrast to full data warehouse appliances that are purpose-built for data warehousing, Satori Server interoperates with existing database management systems rather than requiring their replacement.

The main feature of Satori Server that makes it unique amongst all data warehouse appliances is “omniversal transparency“. This feature shields applications and users from changes to the underlying technology and database platform by complementing Oracle, MS SQL Server, or DB2 databases and their dependent applications. Unlike other solutions that displace existing technologies, the Satori Server’s innovative design extends and enhances an existing information eco-system. Further, Datatupia’s Satori Server is usually added to an existing data warehouse infrastructure by augmenting an organization’s existing data management systems as a query accelerator or capacity extender.

Partial Data Warehouse Appliances (Software Appliances)

May 1, 2011/1 Comment/in Data Warehouse Appliance, Posts /by Adam Getz

Starting in 2006, a new wave of vendors emerged that focus on database management systems (DBMS) purpose-built for data warehousing that easily integrate with another vendor’s hardware. The products from these “partial-solution” data warehouse appliance vendors have been coined as “software appliances”. The software appliance has proved to be a good starting point for new data warehouse vendors. It allows them to focus on their strength, database software, and to partner with commodity hardware vendors and benefit from the hardware firms’ focus and resources.

The partial solution vendor is typically a software company that has developed a proprietary database and either partners with or is a subsidiary of one or more major hardware vendors. These software vendors generally focus on the development of an optimal database management software that is suitable for large data warehouse implementations, and commonly rely on other vendors to supply the most-appropriate hardware.

Software appliance vendors with products based upon the traditional row-based database model:

Kognitio – Offers a row-based “virtual” database called WX2 that does not include indexes or data partitions and runs on blade servers from IBM and hardware from Hewlett-Packard. Kognitio can be deployed to a customer in one of three ways: as a software-only license solution, as a fully configured data warehouse appliance, and on-demand via a Data Warehousing as a Service (DaaS) offering.

Software appliance vendors with products based upon the columnar database model in which data is stored in columns rather than rows:

ParAccel – The ParAccel Analytic Database is a proprietary column-based database that combines patent-pending innovations with a columnar, compressed, massively parallel, all-in-memory-capable architecture. The database is available as a packaged appliance on Sun hardware known as Ultra-Fast Data Warehouse powered by Sun and ParAccel.
Vertica – The Vertica Analytic Database is a grid-based, column-oriented database that runs on grids of commodity Linux-based servers. It features column-oriented storage organization, compression, hybrid storage organization, and a shared nothing architecture. In March 2011, Hewlett Packard (HP) completed an acquisition of Vertica Systems, Inc.
EXASOL – Offers a proprietary, massively parallel database management system called EXASolution. The product is column-based and makes extensive use of in-memory processing. Join indexes are automatically generated at run-time, as required. EXASolution is available either as a software only solution or as a pre-configured appliance running on commodity hardware such as Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Supermicro or Hitachi. EXASolution uses its own version of Linux which provides extended capabilities to support its clustered architecture.
Sybase IQ – Distinguishes itself from conventional databases with its column-oriented, grid-based architecture, patented data compression, and advanced query optimizer. Sybase IQ provides significantly faster query performance than traditional database environments which were designed primarily for processing transactions. The improvement over such solutions can be 10 to 1000 times greater, even as thousands of users and years worth of data are added to the environment. Announced in May 2008, Sybase Analytical Appliance combines pSeries hardware from IBM with the Sybase IQ database.

Software appliance vendors with products based upon a hybrid row and column database:

EMC Greenplum – Acquired in July 2010 by EMC, Greenplum has become the foundation of EMC’s Data Computing Division. Moreover, the EMC Greenplum database contains a shared-nothing, massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture that has been purpose-built for business intelligence and analytical processing.
Aster Data – Provides a database management system (DBMS) called Aster Data nCluster, which is a massively parallel (MPP) hybrid row and column database with an integrated analytics engine. Aster Data’s solution utilizes Aster Data’s patent-pending SQL-MapReduce to allow for parallel processing of data and applications and to deliver rich, analytic insights. Aster Data products can be deployed to a customer in one of three ways: Software-only, Cloud-based, and Complete-appliance called Aster Data MapReduce DW Appliance. In April 2011, Teradata completed its acquisition of Aster Data Systems, Inc.

Complete Data Warehouse Appliance Solutions

April 25, 2011/0 Comments/in Data Warehouse Appliance, Posts /by Adam Getz


Complete data warehouse appliances are purpose-built data warehouse solutions and systems that encompass a whole-technology stack including:

• Operating System (OS)

• Database Management System (DBMS)

• Server Hardware

• Storage Capabilities

Initially DW appliances were created with proprietary custom-built hardware and storage units. Netezza, Teradata, DATAllegro, & White Cross (now Kognito) were the first vendors to provide solutions in this manner. Subsequently data warehouse appliances evolved and started to utilize lower-cost, industry-standard non-proprietary hardware components.The movement from proprietary to commodity hardware has proven to bring down the cost of the data warehouse appliance as the commodity hardware can integrated at a lower cost of both developing and integrating proprietary hardware. Examples of commodity hardware typically include general-purpose servers from Dell, Hewlett Packard (HP), or IBM utilizing Intel processors and popular network and storage hardware from either Cisco, EMC, or Sun.

Introduced 2002, Netezza was the first vendor to offer a complete data warehouse appliance, so early definitions of appliance were based upon Netezza products. Subsequently, Netezza Performance Server still provides all of the software components of a data warehouse appliance, including the database, operating system, servers, and storage units. However in 2009, Netezza replaced its own proprietary hardware with IBM blade servers and storage units. Further in 2010, IBM completed a corporate acquisition of Netezza.

Similar to Netezza, DATAllegro was launched in 2005 with a complete solution involving proprietary hardware. Soon after DATAllegro replaced its own proprietary hardware with commodity server from Dell and storage units from EMC. In 3008, Microsoft acquired DATAllegro in 2008 and announced it will integrate DATAllegro’s massive parallel processing (MPP) architecture into its own MS SQL Server platform, which also runs on commonly-available hardware.

Additionally, both Kognitio and Teradata replaced their proprietary hardware within their appliances in a process similar to that of DATAllegro. Kognitio now offers a row-based, in-memory database database called WX2 that does not include indexes or data partitions and runs on blade servers from IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Teradata provides a proprietary database, a variety of common operating systems (Linux, Unix, and Windows), and a proprietary networking subsystem packaged along with commodity processors and storage units.

Announced at the 2008 Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, the Oracle Exadata Database Machine is a complete package of database software, operating system, servers, and storage. The product was initially assembled in collaboration between Oracle Corporation and Hewlett Packard where Oracle developed the database, operating system and storage software, while HP constructed the hardware. However, with Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle announced the release of Exadata Version two with improved performance and usage of Sun Microsystems storage and operating systems technologies.

At the Sapphire conference in May, 2010 in Orlando, SAP announced the release of its new data warehouse appliance called HANA or High-Performance Analytic Appliance. SAP HANA is a combination of hardware, storage, operating system, management software, and in-memory data query engine that is characterized by data being held in RAM rather than being read from disks or flash storage.

Finally IBM bundles and integrates its own Infosphere Warehouse database software (formerly “DB2 Warehouse”) with its own servers and storage to deliver the IBM Infosphere Balanced Warehouse.

Data Warehouse Appliance: Oracle Exadata

April 18, 2011/0 Comments/in Data Warehouse Appliance, Posts /by Adam Getz

Announced by CEO Larry Ellison at the 2008 Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Oracle Exadata Database Machine is a complete database appliance with support for both transactional (OLTP) and analytical (OLAP) database systems. Delivered as a complete package of database software, operating system, servers, and storage, the Oracle Exadata Database Machine is simple and fast to implement and ready for large-scale business applications.

The product was initially assembled in collaboration between Oracle Corporation and Hewlett Packard (HP) where Oracle developed the database, operating system and storage software, while HP constructed the hardware. However, with Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle announced the release of Exadata Version two with improved performance and usage of Sun Microsystems storage and operating systems technologies. The main idea of Exadata is to make the storage database aware and push processing of queries down to the disks for optimal scanning and performance. Subsequently an Exadata machine can scan 1 TB of data in about 3.5 seconds by scanning several (or all) disks in parallel with Oracle’s Parallel Query technology.

Oracle Exadata Database Machine
Currently the Oracle Exadata Database Machine provides a solution for all types of database systems, ranging from scan-intensive data warehouse applications to highly concurrent transactional applications. With its bundled combination of storage, database software, operating system, and standard hardware components from Sun, the Oracle Exadata Database Machine provides extreme performance within a highly-available, highly-secure environment. Additionally Oracle’s unique clustering and workload management capabilities position the Oracle Exadata Database Machine to be well-suited for consolidating multiple databases onto a single and centralized environment.

Facts and Benefits of Oracle Exadata Database Machine

• Accelerates data warehouse query performance by at least a factor of 10x.
• Runs more queries concurrently for faster access to business-critical information.
• Scales to 10x more concurrent users.
• Provides a trusted highly-available and cost-effective platform.
• Replaces and consolidates isolated special-purpose databases into one platform.
• Allows for massive parallel processing of data with a high-bandwidth.
• Easily expands with the connection of multiple units.
• Includes combination of Oracle Exadata Storage server, Oracle database software, Sun Solaris operating system (OS), and the latest industry standard hardware components from Sun.

Data Warehouse Appliance: SAP HANA

April 13, 2011/0 Comments/in Data Warehouse Appliance, Posts /by Adam Getz

At the Sapphire conference in May, 2010, SAP announced the release of its new data warehouse appliance called HANA or High-Performance Analytic Appliance. SAP HANA is a combination of hardware, storage, operating system, management software, and in-memory data query engine that is characterized by data being held in RAM rather than being read from disks or flash storage. Additionally, HANA has been built to split up queries to run in parallel on multiple processors—a fundamentally different architecture from SAP’s existing applications. This in-memory and parallel processing architecture of HANA allows for extremely fast performance of queries and analytics on very large amounts of data.

The SAP HANA solution has been introduced on Hewlett Packard x86 servers (HP ProLiant DL580 G7 and DL980 G7 servers) and is built upon Intel’s multi-core servers. Moreover, a single server blade can contain up to 2TB of main memory (4TB coming soon) and up to 64 processor cores. With this total solution, SAP claims that they beat the current performance benchmark by factor of 20, on hardware that was several dozens of times cheaper for a 200X price performance improvement. SAP also claims that HANA either reduces or out-right eliminates the need for the development and deployments of complex and expensive datamarts.

SAP intends HANA systems to be well-integrated with its own enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, allowing for transactional data in SAP ERP systems to be analyzed in real time. However, HANA is not dependent solely on SAP ERP systems as a data source. Moreover, HANA is data source “agnostic” which means most common data sources and database can be integrated with it.

According to an SAP document, the HANA platform includes a modeling environment that is simple enough for business users to work with. Additional, HANA supports client interfaces currently include Microsoft Excel and SAP’s Business Objects business intelligence software.

References: SAP’s Transformation: A Work-In-Progress – Part One (ChainLink Research), SAP Launches HANA for In-memory Analytics (PC World)

Components of SAP BusinessObjects: QAAWS

April 1, 2011/0 Comments/in Business Intelligence, Business Objects, Posts /by Adam Getz

Query as a Web Service (QAAWS) is a technique within the SAP Business Objects suite that allows for creation and publishing of web services. Subsequently web services are utilized to integrate data between a Business Objects Universe and an Xcelsius Dashboard. The QAAWS client tool provides the dashboard developer an intuitive wizard that to create universe queries and publish these queries as web services. Once a web service is published, an Xcelsuis Dashboard can utilize and present that data. Fundamentally, QAAWS is an integration device between a Business Objects Universe and an Xcelsius Dashboard.

Query as a Web Service (QAAWS)

Components of SAP BusinessObjects: Xcelsius

March 28, 2011/0 Comments/in Business Intelligence, Business Objects, Posts /by Adam Getz

Xcelsius is the primary dashboard development tool of the SAP BusinessObjects suite of business intelligence products. Xcelsius extends the power of business intelligence environments by offering interactive devices including gauges, charts, widgets, drop-down menus, and sliders. These intuitive and user-friendly devices simplify the display of complex business data and provide decision makers with an easy way to interact with data and test out future business scenarios with the click of a mouse.

Sample Xcelsius Dashboard
At its heart, Xcelsius is a dynamic and customizable data visualization software package that enables development of both insightful and engaging dashboards from various data sources throughout a typical organization. Moreover, Xcelsius includes graphical interfaces and real-time methods that provide guided analysis and for dynamic monitoring of organizational metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Key Features of Xcelsius Dashboards Include:

• Intuitive graphical visualizations of data.
• Dashboard customization to meet unique business needs.
• Connection of dashboards to any type of data source.
• Maximization of the value of a business intelligence solution with rich user interface.
• Deployment of dashboards within Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, Portals, or on the Web.
• Empowerment of decision-makers to view and understand key organizational metrics.
• Improved user adoption of BI tools because of business-friendly visualizations.

ASUG North Carolina – Virginia Chapter Meeting (Friday, 3/25/2011)

March 21, 2011/0 Comments/in Events, Posts /by Adam Getz

Register today and plan to attend the ASUG North Carolina – Virginia Chapter Meeting on Friday, March 25, 2011. Don’t miss your chance to learn from the real experience of ASUG members in your area at this educational and networking event. Registration is now open and is included as part of your ASUG member benefits.

Register Now

Date: Friday, March 25, 2011
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Terremark
18155 Technology Drive
Culpepper, VA 22701

Presentations Include:
• Enabling SAP in the Cloud (Carle LaFoe – Protera, Jim Anthony – Terremark)
• Operating SAP Systems in Virtual and Cloud Environments: Vision and Next Steps (Jeff Anders – SAP Labs)
• Managing a Business Intelligence Center of Excellence (COE) with SAP Business Objects (Adam Getz – Amtrak)
• Data Center Tour (Terremark)
• If they use it, it will pay for itself! How effective User Adoption Can Lead To Success (Tom Fallwell – DMG Federal, Mark Anderson – Sentara Healthcare)
• Adopting SAP’S FSCM-Dispute Management (Hari Subrahmanyan – World Kitchen LLC)
• From Business Data to Business Intelligence at Volkswagen: Leveraging data using Business Objects (Tom Danieli – Volkswagen of America)