DM104 – Evaluation of Business Performance Page 1 of 13

Data Marts

DATA MARTS
 Definition of Data Marts
 Data Marts vs Data Warehouse
 Types of Data Marts
 Structure of Data Marts
 Advantages of Data Marts
 Future of Data Marts in the Cloud

Welcome Notes:
WELCOME BSIS STUDENTS!

I. INTRODUCTION:

This module will guide you to understand data marts in a data warehouse of an enterprise or organization.
A data mart is a structure / access pattern specific to data warehouse environments, used to retrieve client-
facing data.

II. OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Define data marts.
2. Differentiate data marts and data warehouse.
3. Explain the three types of data marts.
4. Appreciate the importance and advantages of using data marts in an enterprise.
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Data Marts

III. PRELIMINARY ACTIVITIES:

Before you proceed to the main lesson, test yourself in this activity.

Direction: Write TRUE if the statement is correct, otherwise write FALSE.

_______ 1. Data mart has many source systems.
_______ 2. Data warehouse is a subset of a data warehouse oriented to a specific business line.
_______ 3. Data mart is a large centralized repository of data that contains information from many
sources within an organization.
_______ 4. Data Mart helps to enhance user's response time due to reduction in volume of data
_______ 5. Data mart is defined by a single subject matter expert.

GREAT!!!
You may now proceed to the main lesson.

IV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE LESSON

Based on the preliminary activities, what did you notice about it?
________________________________________________________
CONGRATULATIONS!
You may now proceed to the lesson.

Data Mart
A data mart is a subject-oriented database that is often a partitioned segment of an enterprise data
warehouse. The subset of data held in a data mart typically aligns with a particular business unit like sales,
finance, or marketing. Data marts accelerate business processes by allowing access to relevant information
in a data warehouse or operational data store within days, as opposed to months or longer. Because a data
mart only contains the data applicable to a certain business area, it is a cost-effective way to gain actionable
insights quickly.
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Data Marts

Data Mart vs Data Warehouse

Data marts and data warehouses are both highly structured repositories where data is stored and
managed until it is needed. However, they differ in the scope of data stored: data warehouses are built to
serve as the central store of data for the entire business, whereas a data mart fulfills the request of a specific
division or business function. Because a data warehouse contains data for the entire company, it is best
practice to have strictly control who can access it. Additionally, querying the data you need in a data
warehouse is an incredibly difficult task for the business. Thus, the primary purpose of a data mart is to
isolate—or partition—a smaller set of data from a whole to provide easier data access for the end consumers.

A data mart is a subset of a data warehouse oriented to a specific business line. Data marts contain
repositories of summarized data collected for analysis on a specific section or unit within an organization, for
example, the sales department.

A data warehouse is a large centralized repository of data that contains information from many sources
within an organization. The collated data is used to guide business decisions through analysis, reporting, and
data mining tools.
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Data Marts

A data mart can be created from an existing data warehouse—the top-down approach—or from other
sources, such as internal operational systems or external data. Similar to a data warehouse, it is a relational
database that stores transactional data (time value, numerical order, reference to one or more object) in
columns and rows making it easy to organize and access.

On the other hand, separate business units may create their own data marts based on their own data
requirements. If business needs dictate, multiple data marts can be merged together to create a single, data
warehouse. This is the bottom-up development approach.

Data Mart Data Warehouse

Size < 100 GB 100 GB +
Subject Single Subject Multiple Subjects
Scope Line-of-Business Enterprise-wide
Data Sources Few Sources Many Source Systems
Data Integration One Subject Area All Business Data
Time to Build Minutes, Weeks, Months Many Months to Years
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Data Marts

3 Types of Data Marts

There are three types of data marts: dependent, independent, and hybrid. They are categorized based on
their relation to the data warehouse and the data sources that are used to create the system.

1. Dependent Data Marts

A dependent data mart is created from an existing enterprise data warehouse. It is the top-down
approach that begins with storing all business data in one central location, then extracts a clearly defined
portion of the data when needed for analysis.
To form a data warehouse, a specific set of data is aggregated
(formed into a cluster) from the warehouse, restructured, then loaded
to the data mart where it can be queried. It can be a logical view or
physical subset of the data warehouse:
 Logical view – A virtual table/view that is logically—but not
physically—separated from the data warehouse
 Physical subset – Data extract that is a physically separate
database from the data warehouse
 Granular data—the lowest level of data in the target set—in
the data warehouse serves as the single point of reference
for all dependent data marts that are created.

2. Independent Data Marts

An independent data mart is a stand-alone system—created
without the use of a data warehouse—that focuses on one subject
area or business function. Data is extracted from internal or
external data sources (or both), processed, and then loaded to the
data mart repository where it is stored until needed for business
analytics.
Independent data marts are not difficult to design and
develop. They are beneficial to achieve short-term goals but may
become cumbersome to manage—each with its own ETL tool and
logic—as business needs expand and become more complex.
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Data Marts

3. Hybrid Data Marts

A hybrid data mart combines data from an existing data warehouse and other operational source
systems. It unites the speed and end-user focus of a top-down approach with the benefits of the
enterprise-level integration of the bottom-up method.

Structure of a Data Mart

Similar to a data warehouse, a data mart may be organized using a star, snowflake, vault, or other
schema as a blueprint. IT teams typically use a star schema consisting of one or more fact tables (set of
metrics relating to a specific business process or event) referencing dimension tables (primary key joined to
a fact table) in a relational database.

The benefit of a star schema is that fewer joins are needed when writing queries, as there is no
dependency between dimensions. This simplifies the ETL request process making it easier for analysts to
access and navigate.

In a snowflake schema, dimensions are not clearly defined. They are normalized to help reduce data
redundancy and protect data integrity. It takes less space to store dimension tables, but it is a more
complicated structure (multiple tables to populate and synchronize) that can be difficult to maintain.
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Data Marts

Advantages of a Data Mart

Managing big data—and gaining valuable business insights—is a challenge all companies face, and one
that most are answering with strategic data marts.
 Efficient access — Data mart is a time-saving solution for accessing a specific set of data for
business intelligence.
 Inexpensive data warehouse alternative — Data marts can be an inexpensive alternative to
developing an enterprise data warehouse, where required data sets are smaller. An independent
data mart can be up and running in a week or less.
 Improve data warehouse performance — Dependent and hybrid data marts can improve the
performance of a data warehouse by taking on the burden of processing, to meet the needs of the
analyst. When dependent data marts are placed in a separate processing facility, they significantly
reduce analytics processing costs as well.

Other advantages of a data mart include:

 Data maintenance — Different departments can own and control their data.
 Simple setup — Simple design requires less technical skill to set up.
 Analytics — Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be easily tracked.
 Easy entry — Data marts can be the building blocks of a future enterprise data warehouse project.

Why do we need Data Mart?

 Data Mart helps to enhance user's response time due to reduction in volume of data
 It provides easy access to frequently requested data.
 Data mart are simpler to implement when compared to data warehouse. At the same time, the cost
of implementing Data Mart is certainly lower compared with implementing a full data warehouse.
 Compared to Data Warehouse, a data mart is agile. In case of change in model, data mart can be
built quicker due to a smaller size.
 A data mart is defined by a single Subject Matter Expert. On the contrary data warehouse is defined
by interdisciplinary SME from a variety of domains. Hence, Data mart is more open to change
compared to data warehouse.
 Data is partitioned and allows very granular access control privileges.
 Data can be segmented and stored on different hardware/software platforms.
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Data Marts

The Future of Data Marts is in the Cloud

Even with the improved flexibility and efficiency that data marts offer, big data—and big business—is still
becoming too big for many on-premises solutions. As data warehouses and data lakes move to the cloud, so
too do data marts.

With a shared cloud-based platform to create and house data, access and analytics become much more
efficient. Transient data clusters can be created for short-term analysis, or long-lived clusters can come
together for more sustained work. Modern technologies are also separating data storage from compute,
allowing for ultimate scalability for querying data.

Other advantages of cloud-based dependent and hybrid data marts include:

 Flexible architecture with cloud-native applications.
 Single depository containing all data marts.
 Resources consumed on-demand.
 Immediate real-time access to information.
 Increased efficiency.
 Consolidation of resources that lowers costs.
 Real-time, interactive analytics.

We had just finished the discussion on data marts. Let’s move on to the
next higher level of activity/ies or exercise/s that demonstrate your potential
skills/knowledge of what you have learned.
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Data Marts

V. ANALYSIS, APPLICATION AND EXPLORATION

ACTIVITY 1
Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________
Year & Section: _________________________ Score: _________________
Direction: Read each statement below and fill in the missing words from the word bank.

Hybrid Data Mart Star Data Warehouse Subject-Oriented

Dependent Independent Granular Physical Subset Business Intelligence

1. A data mart is a __________ database that is often a partitioned segment of an enterprise data
warehouse.
2. __________ is a subset of a data warehouse oriented to a specific business line.
3. __________ is a large centralized repository of data that contains information from many sources within
an organization.
4. __________ data mart is created from an existing enterprise data warehouse.
5. __________ data is the lowest level of data in the target set—in the data warehouse serves as the single
point of reference for all dependent data marts that are created.
6. __________ refers to the data extracted physically separate database from the data warehouse.
7. __________ data mart is a stand-alone system—created without the use of a data warehouse—that
focuses on one subject area or business function.
8. __________ data mart combines data from an existing data warehouse and other operational source
systems.
9. __________ schema is that fewer joins are needed when writing queries, as there is no dependency
between dimensions.
10. Data mart is a time-saving solution for accessing a specific set of data for __________.

Finally, let us summarize the lesson of what we had discussed today.

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Data Marts

VI. GENERALIZATION

Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________

Year & Section: _________________________ Score: _________________
Direction: Answer the following questions.
1. What is Data Mart?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is Data Warehouse?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

3. Create a diagram that shows the data marts of an academic institution.

KUDOS!
You have come to an end of Module 4.
OOPS! Don’t forget that you have still an assignment to do.
Here it is….
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Data Marts

VII. ASSIGNMENT

Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________

Year & Section: _________________________ Score: _________________
Direction: Write TRUE if the statement is correct, otherwise write FALSE.
_______ 1. Using a cloud-based platform to create a data house and to access data is much more efficient.
_______ 2. Data mart is a time-saving solution for accessing a specific set of data for business intelligence.
_______ 3. A hybrid data mart combines data from an existing data warehouse and other operational
source systems.
_______ 4. Data mart has many source systems.
_______ 5. Data warehouse is a subset of a data warehouse oriented to a specific business line.
_______ 6. Data mart is a large centralized repository of data that contains information from many sources
within an organization.
_______ 7. Data Mart helps to enhance user's response time due to reduction in volume of data
_______ 8. Data mart is defined by a single subject matter expert.
_______ 9. Dependent data mart is a stand-alone system—created without the use of a data warehouse—
that focuses on one subject area or business function.
_______ 10. Independent data mart is created from an existing enterprise data warehouse.

After your long journey of reading and accomplishing the module, let us now
challenge your mind by answering the evaluation part of this module.
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Data Marts

VIII. EVALUATION

Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________

Year & Section: _________________________ Score: _________________
Direction: Read each sentence/ situation carefully and select the BEST answer among the choices and
encircle its corresponding letter.
1. It contains repositories of summarized data collected for analysis on a specific section or unit within an
organization.
A. Data Warehouse B. Data Mart C. Cloud Computing D. Database
2. It is a subject-oriented database that is often a partitioned segment of an enterprise data warehouse.
A. Data Warehouse B. Data Mart C. Cloud Computing D. Database
3. A large centralized repository of data that contains information from many sources within an organization.
A. Data Warehouse B. Data Mart C. Cloud Computing D. Database
4. It contains multiple data sources and covers a whole business or company.
A. Data Warehouse B. Data Mart C. Cloud Computing D. Database
5. A type of data mart is created from an existing enterprise data warehouse.
A. Dependent B. Independent C. Hybrid D. None of these.
6. It is a type of data mart wherein a stand-alone system is created without the use of a data warehouse
and focuses on one subject area or business function.
A. Dependent B. Independent C. Hybrid D. None of these.
7. A type of data mart that combines data from an existing data warehouse and other operational source
systems.
A. Dependent B. Independent C. Hybrid D. None of these.
8. A structure of data mart that consist fewer joins when writing queries, as there is no dependency between
dimensions.
A. Snowflake Schema B. Star Schema C. Hybrid Schema D. None of these.
9. A structure of data mart which takes less space to store dimension tables, but it is a more complicated
structure that can be difficult to maintain.
A. Snowflake Schema B. Star Schema C. Hybrid Schema D. None of these.
10. It is a computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active
management by the user.
A. Data Warehouse B. Data Mart C. Cloud Computing D. Database
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Data Marts

CONGRATULATIONS on reaching the end of this module!

You may now proceed to the next module.
Don’t forget to submit all the exercises, activities and portfolio
on ___________________.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Well Done!!!