DATA WAREHOUSING

UNIT I
INTRODUCTION TO DATA WAREHOUSE

A data warehouse is a centralized repository that stores data from various sources.
The primary purpose of a data warehouse is to enable efficient querying and analysis
of large volumes of data. Unlike traditional databases that are optimized for
transactional processing, data warehouses are designed for read-heavy operations,
such as complex queries and reports.
Key Features
Data Integration: Data warehouses integrate data from multiple, often disparate
sources such as operational databases, external data feeds, and legacy systems. This
integration involves data cleaning and transformation processes to ensure consistency
and quality.
Historical Data: Data warehouses are designed to store historical data, making it
possible to perform trend analysis and track changes over time. This is in contrast to
transactional databases, which typically store only current data.
Data Modeling: Data in a warehouse is often organized using multidimensional
models (e.g., star schema, snowflake schema) or data marts to facilitate complex
queries. These models support analytical operations and business intelligence
activities.
OLAP (Online Analytical Processing): Data warehouses support OLAP, which
enables users to perform multidimensional analysis, such as slicing, dicing, and
drilling down into data to gain insights.
ETL Process: Data warehouses typically use ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)
processes to move data from source systems into the warehouse. This process
involves extracting data from source systems, transforming it into a suitable format,
and loading it into the data warehouse.
Benefits
Improved Decision-Making: By consolidating data from various sources and
providing powerful analytical tools, data warehouses help organizations make
informed decisions based on comprehensive insights.
 Enhanced Performance: Data warehouses are optimized for read-heavy operations,
allowing for fast query performance and efficient handling of large datasets.
Historical Analysis: Storing historical data enables trend analysis and forecasting,
providing valuable insights into past performance and future projections.
Data Consistency: The integration and transformation processes ensure that data is
consistent and accurate across the organization, reducing discrepancies and improving
reliability.
Use Cases/Application
• Business Intelligence: Reporting, dashboards, and performance metrics.
• Data Mining: Discovering patterns and relationships in large datasets.
• Trend Analysis: Tracking and analyzing historical trends.
• Predictive Analytics: Using historical data to forecast future trends.

Data Warehouse Components

A data warehouse is composed of several key components that work together to
support data integration, storage, and analysis. Here's a breakdown of these
components:
1. Data Sources
• Operational Databases: Databases that support day-to-day operations, such as CRM
or ERP systems.
• External Data: Data from external sources like market research firms, social media,
or third-party APIs.
• Flat Files: Simple data files like CSVs or spreadsheets that may be imported into the
warehouse.
2. ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) Process
• Extract: The process of retrieving data from various source systems.
• Transform: Converting data into a suitable format for analysis, which includes
cleaning, filtering, and aggregating.
• Load: Inserting the transformed data into the data warehouse.
 3. Data Staging Area
• Staging Database: A temporary storage area where data is placed before
transformation and loading into the data warehouse. It helps in managing the ETL
process and handling large volumes of data.
4. Data Warehouse Database
• Central Repository: The core database where data is stored in a structured format. It
typically uses a schema like star schema or snowflake schema to organize data for
efficient querying.
• Data Marts: Subsets of the data warehouse, designed for specific business functions
or departments (e.g., sales, finance). They can be used to improve performance and
accessibility for end users.
5. Metadata
• Descriptive Metadata: Information about the data stored in the warehouse, including
its source, structure, and usage.
• Operational Metadata: Data about the processes and workflows of the ETL and data
warehouse operations.
• Business Metadata: Terms and definitions used by the business, including business
rules and data definitions.
6. OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
• OLAP Cubes: Multidimensional data structures that allow for fast querying and
complex analysis. They enable users to perform operations like slicing, dicing, and
drilling down into data.
• OLAP Engines: Software tools that process OLAP cubes and facilitate analysis.
7. Data Access and Analysis Tools
• Business Intelligence (BI) Tools: Software for generating reports, dashboards, and
visualizations (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).
• Query Tools: Tools used to write and execute SQL queries against the data
warehouse.
• Data Mining Tools: Tools that apply statistical and machine learning algorithms to
discover patterns and insights in data.
 8. Data Governance and Security
• Data Quality Management: Ensuring the accuracy, completeness, and consistency
of data.
• Data Security: Measures to protect data from unauthorized access, including
encryption, user authentication, and access controls.
• Data Governance: Policies and procedures to manage data assets, including data
stewardship and compliance with regulations.
9. Metadata Management
• Metadata Repositories: Systems that store and manage metadata, providing a
centralized view of data assets and their relationships.
10. Data Integration Tools
• Data Integration Platforms: Tools that facilitate the integration of data from
multiple sources, often including ETL capabilities.
Typical Workflow in a Data Warehouse:
1. Data Extraction: Data is collected from various sources and transferred to the staging
area.
2. Data Transformation: The data is cleaned, transformed, and prepared for loading
into the data warehouse.
3. Data Loading: The transformed data is loaded into the data warehouse database.
4. Data Analysis: Users access and analyze the data using BI tools, OLAP cubes, and
other analytical tools.
5. Reporting and Visualization: Insights are presented through reports, dashboards,
and visualizations for decision-making.
Each of these components plays a crucial role in the overall functionality of a data
warehouse, ensuring that data is effectively managed, accessible, and useful for
analysis.
 Operational Database Vs Data Warehouse
Operational databases and data warehouses serve distinct purposes within an
organization's data ecosystem. Here’s a detailed comparison highlighting their
differences:
Operational Database Data Warehouse
Primary Purpose: Designed for managing day- o Primary Purpose: Designed for analytical
to-day operations and transactions. It supports purposes, including reporting, data analysis, and
real-time business processes, such as order business intelligence. It consolidates data from
processing, inventory management, and multiple sources to provide a comprehensive
customer relationship management view of historical and current data.
o Use Case: Used by business applications and o Use Case: Used for strategic decision-making,
employees for routine tasks and transactions. trend analysis, and complex queries.
o
Data Structure
o Data Model: Typically uses a normalized o Data Model: Uses denormalized schemas such
schema (e.g., 3NF) to reduce data redundancy as star schema or snowflake schema to optimize
and maintain data integrity. query performance and support complex
o Design: Focuses on transactional efficiency and analysis.
supports high volumes of small, frequent o Design: Optimized for read-heavy operations
transactions. and supports large-scale data queries and
aggregations.

Data Volume and Historical Data

Data Volume: Handles a high volume of o Data Volume: Manages large volumes of
current, real-time data related to ongoing historical data from various sources.
transactions. o Historical Data: Stores historical data over long
Historical Data: Typically stores only current periods, enabling trend analysis and historical
data and recent transaction history, with limited comparisons.
historical data retention.

Performance and Querying

o Performance: Optimized for quick, small o Performance: Optimized for complex queries,
transactions and high-speed processing of read large-scale data retrieval, and aggregations.
and write operations. o Querying: Supports complex, multi-
o Querying: Supports simple, real-time queries dimensional queries and analytical processing.
related to current business operations.

o
o
 Data Integration and ETL o
o
o Integration: Integrates with other operational o Integration: Integrates data from multiple
systems for real-time data processing. sources, including operational databases,
ETL: Not typically involved in ETL processes, external sources, and flat files.
as it handles real-time transaction processing. o ETL: Employs ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)
processes to extract data from source systems,
transform it, and load it into the warehouse.

Data Updates and Transactions

o Updates: Frequently updated with newo Updates: Data is updated in batches during ETL
transactions and modifications. processes, not in real-time.
o Transactions: Supports high-volume, real-o Transactions: Less focused on transaction
time transactions with ACID (Atomicity, processing; mainly concerned with data
Consistency, Isolation, Durability) properties. retrieval and analysis.
o
Backup and Recovery
o Backup: Frequent backups are essential dueo Backup: Backups are typically less frequent but
to the constant updates and critical nature of still important for data recovery and integrity.
the data. o Recovery: Recovery focuses on restoring
o Recovery: Requires high availability and historical data and ensuring data accuracy for
recovery options to ensure continuous analysis.
operation.

Example Technologies

o Examples: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracleo Examples: Amazon Redshift, Google

Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB. BigQuery, Snowflake, Microsoft Azure
Synapse Analytics, Teradata.

o
o

In summary, operational databases are designed to handle day-to-day transactional

operations and real-time data, while data warehouses are built for complex queries,
large-scale data analysis, and historical reporting. Both are crucial but serve different
roles in managing and utilizing data within an organization.

Data Warehouse Architecture

A data warehouse architecture is a method of defining the overall architecture of data
communication processing and presentation that exist for end-clients computing
 within the enterprise. Each data warehouse is different, but all are characterized by
standard vital components.
Production applications such as payroll accounts payable product purchasing and
inventory control are designed for online transaction processing (OLTP). Such
applications gather detailed data from day to day operations.
Data Warehouse applications are designed to support the user ad-hoc data
requirements, an activity recently dubbed online analytical processing (OLAP). These
include applications such as forecasting, profiling, summary reporting, and trend
analysis.
Production databases are updated continuously by either by hand or via OLTP
applications. In contrast, a warehouse database is updated from operational systems
periodically, usually during off-hours. As OLTP data accumulates in production
databases, it is regularly extracted, filtered, and then loaded into a dedicated
warehouse server that is accessible to users. As the warehouse is populated, it must
be restructured tables de-normalized, data cleansed of errors and redundancies and
new fields and keys added to reflect the needs to the user for sorting, combining, and
summarizing data.
Data warehouses and their architectures vary depending upon the elements of an
organization's situation.
Three common architectures are:
o Data Warehouse Architecture: Basic
o Data Warehouse Architecture: With Staging Area
o Data Warehouse Architecture: With Staging Area and Data Marts
Data Warehouse Architecture: Basic
Operational System
An operational system is a method used in data warehousing to refer to a system that
is used to process the day-to-day transactions of an organization.
Flat Files
A Flat file system is a system of files in which transactional data is stored, and every
file in the system must have a different name.
Meta Data
 A set of data that defines and gives information about other data.
Meta Data used in Data Warehouse for a variety of purpose, including:
Meta Data summarizes necessary information about data, which can make finding
and work with particular instances of data more accessible. For example, author, data
build, and data changed, and file size are examples of very basic document metadata.
Metadata is used to direct a query to the most appropriate data source.
Lightly and highly summarized data
The area of the data warehouse saves all the predefined lightly and highly summarized
(aggregated) data generated by the warehouse manager.
The goals of the summarized information are to speed up query performance. The
summarized record is updated continuously as new information is loaded into the
warehouse.
End-User access Tools
The principal purpose of a data warehouse is to provide information to the business
managers for strategic decision-making. These customers interact with the warehouse
using end-client access tools.
The examples of some of the end-user access tools can be:
o Reporting and Query Tools
o Application Development Tools
o Executive Information Systems Tools
o Online Analytical Processing Tools
o Data Mining Tools
Data Warehouse Architecture: With Staging Area
We must clean and process your operational information before put it into the
warehouse.
We can do this programmatically, although data warehouses uses a staging area (A
place where data is processed before entering the warehouse).
A staging area simplifies data cleansing and consolidation for operational method
coming from multiple source systems, especially for enterprise data warehouses
where all relevant data of an enterprise is consolidated.
Data Warehouse Staging Area is a temporary location where a record from source
systems is copied.
Data Warehouse Architecture: With Staging Area and Data Marts
We may want to customize our warehouse's architecture for multiple groups within
our organization.
We can do this by adding data marts. A data mart is a segment of a data warehouses
that can provided information for reporting and analysis on a section, unit, department
or operation in the company, e.g., sales, payroll, production, etc.
The figure illustrates an example where purchasing, sales, and stocks are separated.
In this example, a financial analyst wants to analyze historical data for purchases and
sales or mine historical information to make predictions about customer behavior.
Properties of Data Warehouse Architectures
The following architecture properties are necessary for a data warehouse system:
1. Separation: Analytical and transactional processing should be keep apart as much
as possible.
2. Scalability: Hardware and software architectures should be simple to upgrade the
data volume, which has to be managed and processed, and the number of user's
requirements, which have to be met, progressively increase.
3. Extensibility: The architecture should be able to perform new operations and
technologies without redesigning the whole system.
4. Security: Monitoring accesses are necessary because of the strategic data stored in
the data warehouses.
5. Administrability: Data Warehouse management should not be complicated.
Types of Data Warehouse Architectures
Single-Tier Architecture
Single-Tier architecture is not periodically used in practice. Its purpose is to minimize
the amount of data stored to reach this goal; it removes data redundancies.
The figure shows the only layer physically available is the source layer. In this
method, data warehouses are virtual. This means that the data warehouse is
implemented as a multidimensional view of operational data created by specific
middleware, or an intermediate processing layer.
 The vulnerability of this architecture lies in its failure to meet the requirement for
separation between analytical and transactional processing. Analysis queries are
agreed to operational data after the middleware interprets them. In this way, queries
affect transactional workloads.

Two-Tier Architecture
The requirement for separation plays an essential role in defining the two-tier
architecture for a data warehouse system, as shown in fig:
Although it is typically called two-layer architecture to highlight a separation between
physically available sources and data warehouses, in fact, consists of four subsequent
data flow stages:
1. Source layer: A data warehouse system uses a heterogeneous source of data. That
data is stored initially to corporate relational databases or legacy databases, or it may
come from an information system outside the corporate walls.
2. Data Staging: The data stored to the source should be extracted, cleansed to remove
inconsistencies and fill gaps, and integrated to merge heterogeneous sources into one
standard schema. The so-named Extraction, Transformation, and Loading Tools
(ETL) can combine heterogeneous schemata, extract, transform, cleanse, validate,
filter, and load source data into a data warehouse.
3. Data Warehouse layer: Information is saved to one logically centralized individual
repository: a data warehouse. The data warehouses can be directly accessed, but it can
also be used as a source for creating data marts, which partially replicate data
warehouse contents and are designed for specific enterprise departments. Meta-data
repositories store information on sources, access procedures, data staging, users, data
mart schema, and so on.
4. Analysis: In this layer, integrated data is efficiently, and flexible accessed to issue
reports, dynamically analyze information, and simulate hypothetical business
scenarios. It should feature aggregate information navigators, complex query
optimizers, and customer-friendly GUIs.

Three-Tier Architecture
 The three-tier architecture consists of the source layer (containing multiple source
system), the reconciled layer and the data warehouse layer (containing both data
warehouses and data marts). The reconciled layer sits between the source data and
data warehouse.
The main advantage of the reconciled layer is that it creates a standard reference data
model for a whole enterprise. At the same time, it separates the problems of source
data extraction and integration from those of data warehouse population. In some
cases, the reconciled layer is also directly used to accomplish better some operational
tasks, such as producing daily reports that cannot be satisfactorily prepared using the
corporate applications or generating data flows to feed external processes periodically
to benefit from cleaning and integration.
This architecture is especially useful for the extensive, enterprise-wide systems. A
disadvantage of this structure is the extra file storage space used through the extra
redundant reconciled layer. It also makes the analytical tools a little further away from
being real-time.
Data Warehouses usually have a three-level (tier) architecture that includes:
1. Bottom Tier (Data Warehouse Server)
2. Middle Tier (OLAP Server)
3. Top Tier (Front end Tools).
A bottom-tier that consists of the Data Warehouse server, which is almost always
an RDBMS. It may include several specialized data marts and a metadata repository.
Data from operational databases and external sources (such as user profile data
provided by external consultants) are extracted using application program interfaces
called a gateway. A gateway is provided by the underlying DBMS and allows
customer programs to generate SQL code to be executed at a server.
Examples of gateways contain ODBC (Open Database Connection) and OLE-
DB (Open-Linking and Embedding for Databases), by Microsoft, and JDBC (Java
Database Connection).
A middle-tier which consists of an OLAP server for fast querying of the data
warehouse.
The OLAP server is implemented using either
(1) A Relational OLAP (ROLAP) model, i.e., an extended relational DBMS that
maps functions on multidimensional data to standard relational operations.
(2) A Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP) model, i.e., a particular purpose server
that directly implements multidimensional information and operations.
A top-tier that contains front-end tools for displaying results provided by OLAP, as
well as additional tools for data mining of the OLAP-generated data.
The overall Data Warehouse Architecture is shown in fig:
 The metadata repository stores information that defines DW objects. It includes the
following parameters and information for the middle and the top-tier applications:
1. A description of the DW structure, including the warehouse schema, dimension,
hierarchies, data mart locations, and contents, etc.
2. Operational metadata, which usually describes the currency level of the stored data,
i.e., active, archived or purged, and warehouse monitoring information, i.e., usage
statistics, error reports, audit, etc.
3. System performance data, which includes indices, used to improve data access and
retrieval performance.
4. Information about the mapping from operational databases, which provides
source RDBMSs and their contents, cleaning and transformation rules, etc.
5. Summarization algorithms, predefined queries, and reports business data, which
include business terms and definitions, ownership information, etc.

Principles of Data Warehousing

Load Performance

Data warehouses require increase loading of new data periodically basis within
narrow time windows; performance on the load process should be measured in
hundreds of millions of rows and gigabytes per hour and must not artificially constrain
the volume of data business.

Load Processing

Many phases must be taken to load new or update data into the data warehouse,
including data conversion, filtering, reformatting, indexing, and metadata update.

Data Quality Management

Fact-based management demands the highest data quality. The warehouse ensures
local consistency, global consistency, and referential integrity despite "dirty" sources
and massive database size.

Query Performance

Fact-based management must not be slowed by the performance of the data

warehouse RDBMS; large, complex queries must be complete in seconds, not days.

Terabyte Scalability
 Data warehouse sizes are growing at astonishing rates. Today these size from a few
to hundreds of gigabytes and terabyte-sized data warehouses.

Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW)

An Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) is a cloud-based data warehouse service

that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate key
management tasks and optimize database performance. Oracle’s Autonomous Data
Warehouse, for example, is designed to simplify database operations, reduce costs,
and provide high performance and security.
Here’s a deeper look into what Autonomous Data Warehouse offers:
Key Features
1. Self-Driving Capabilities
o Automatic Tuning: The system automatically tunes the database for optimal
performance, adjusting resources and configurations as needed.
o Automatic Scaling: It can scale compute and storage resources up or down based on
workload requirements without manual intervention.
o Automatic Patching: The database is automatically updated with the latest patches
and upgrades, ensuring you always have the latest features and security fixes.
2. Self-Securing
o Data Encryption: All data is encrypted both at rest and in transit. This ensures that
data security is maintained without requiring manual configuration.
o Automatic Backup: Regular backups are performed automatically, and data can be
restored to any point in time within the backup retention period.
o Access Controls: The system provides robust security features to manage user access
and prevent unauthorized access.
3. Self-Repairing
o Fault Tolerance: It includes automated fault detection and recovery to ensure high
availability and minimal downtime.
o Health Monitoring: The system continuously monitors its own health and
performance, automatically addressing issues without manual intervention.
 Getting Started with Autonomous Data Warehouse
1. Provisioning
o Sign Up and Log In: Start by signing up for a cloud service provider account (e.g.,
Oracle Cloud) and log in to the cloud console.
o Create an Instance: Navigate to the database section, select "Autonomous Data
Warehouse," and follow the prompts to create a new database instance. You’ll need to
specify configuration details like compute resources and storage.
2. Connecting to the Database
o Download Wallet: After provisioning, download the wallet file (a security credential
file) that contains the connection details.
o Configure a Client Tool: Use tools like SQL Developer or SQL*Plus to connect to
the database using the credentials and wallet file.
3. Loading Data
o Data Import: Use SQL commands, Oracle Data Pump, or Oracle’s data loading
utilities to import data into your new data warehouse.
o Data Transformation: Perform any necessary data transformation or cleaning using
SQL or ETL tools.
4. Querying and Analysis
o Run Queries: Use SQL queries to interact with your data. You can create tables, run
analytical queries, and perform data manipulation.
o Business Intelligence Tools: Connect BI tools such as Oracle Analytics Cloud,
Tableau, or Power BI for advanced reporting and data visualization.
5. Monitoring and Maintenance
o Performance Monitoring: Use the Oracle Cloud console to monitor performance
metrics and insights. The system provides recommendations and automatic tuning to
optimize performance.
o Security and Compliance: Review and manage security settings, access controls,
and compliance reports from the cloud console.
 Benefits
• Reduced Operational Costs: By automating many administrative tasks, ADW
reduces the need for manual database management and maintenance, leading to cost
savings.
• High Performance: The system automatically optimizes performance, ensuring fast
query execution and efficient resource utilization.
• Increased Security: Automatic encryption, patching, and backups enhance data
security and compliance.
• Scalability: Easily scale resources based on demand without manual intervention,
ensuring that you can handle varying workloads efficiently.
Example Use Cases
• Data Warehousing: Centralize and analyze large volumes of data from various
sources.
• Business Analytics: Perform complex queries and generate reports for business
intelligence.
• Data Integration: Integrate and aggregate data from disparate sources for unified
analysis.

Snowflake Schema
A snowflake schema is equivalent to the star schema. "A schema is known as a
snowflake if one or more dimension tables do not connect directly to the fact table
but must join through other dimension tables."
The snowflake schema is an expansion of the star schema where each point of the star
explodes into more points. It is called snowflake schema because the diagram of
snowflake schema resembles a snowflake. Snowflaking is a method of normalizing
the dimension tables in a STAR schemas. When we normalize all the dimension tables
entirely, the resultant structure resembles a snowflake with the fact table in the middle.
Snowflaking is used to develop the performance of specific queries. The schema is
diagramed with each fact surrounded by its associated dimensions, and those
dimensions are related to other dimensions, branching out into a snowflake pattern.
The snowflake schema consists of one fact table which is linked to many dimension
tables, which can be linked to other dimension tables through a many-to-one
relationship. Tables in a snowflake schema are generally normalized to the third
normal form. Each dimension table performs exactly one level in a hierarchy.
The following diagram shows a snowflake schema with two dimensions, each having
three levels. A snowflake schemas can have any number of dimension, and each
dimension can have any number of levels.

Example: Figure shows a snowflake schema with a Sales fact table, with Store,
Location, Time, Product, Line, and Family dimension tables. The Market dimension
has two dimension tables with Store as the primary dimension table, and Location as
the outrigger dimension table. The product dimension has three dimension tables with
Product as the primary dimension table, and the Line and Family table are the
outrigger dimension tables.
A star schema store all attributes for a dimension into one denormalized table. This
needed more disk space than a more normalized snowflake schema. Snowflaking
normalizes the dimension by moving attributes with low cardinality into separate
dimension tables that relate to the core dimension table by using foreign keys.
Snowflaking for the sole purpose of minimizing disk space is not recommended,
because it can adversely impact query performance.
In snowflake, schema tables are normalized to delete redundancy. In snowflake
dimension tables are damaged into multiple dimension tables.
Figure shows a simple STAR schema for sales in a manufacturing company. The sales
fact table include quantity, price, and other relevant metrics. SALESREP,
CUSTOMER, PRODUCT, and TIME are the dimension tables.
The STAR schema for sales, as shown above, contains only five tables, whereas the
normalized version now extends to eleven tables. We will notice that in the snowflake
schema, the attributes with low cardinality in each original dimension tables are
removed to form separate tables. These new tables are connected back to the original
dimension table through artificial keys.
 A snowflake schema is designed for flexible querying across more complex
dimensions and relationship. It is suitable for many to many and one to many
relationships between dimension levels.
Advantage of Snowflake Schema
1. The primary advantage of the snowflake schema is the development in query
performance due to minimized disk storage requirements and joining smaller lookup
tables.
2. It provides greater scalability in the interrelationship between dimension levels and
components.
3. No redundancy, so it is easier to maintain.
Disadvantage of Snowflake Schema
1. The primary disadvantage of the snowflake schema is the additional maintenance
efforts required due to the increasing number of lookup tables. It is also known as a
multi fact star schema.
2. There are more complex queries and hence, difficult to understand.
3. More tables more join so more query execution time.

Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) and Snowflake are both leading cloud data
warehousing solutions, but they have distinct features and architectures. Here’s a
comparison of the two to help you understand their key differences and similarities:
1. Overview
• Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW): This is Oracle's cloud-based data warehouse
solution that uses machine learning and automation to manage, optimize, and secure
the data warehouse environment. It is part of Oracle's broader suite of cloud services.
• Snowflake: Snowflake is a cloud-native data warehousing platform designed for
simplicity, scalability, and performance. It’s known for its unique architecture and
ability to handle structured and semi-structured data.
2. Architecture
• ADW:
o Architecture: Built on Oracle's database technology, ADW provides a traditional data
warehousing architecture with automated management features. It includes automatic
tuning, scaling, and security.
o Storage: It uses a single unified storage layer that is shared across multiple compute
instances.
o Compute and Storage Separation: ADW allows for separate scaling of compute and
storage, but it may require manual configuration for optimal performance.
• Snowflake:
o Architecture: Snowflake has a multi-cluster architecture with a clear separation
between compute, storage, and services layers. This allows for independent scaling of
compute and storage.
o Storage: Snowflake uses a central storage layer that is accessible by all compute
clusters.
o Compute and Storage Separation: Snowflake provides dynamic scaling of compute
resources and automatic data storage management, which is highly automated.
 3. Automation and Management
• ADW:
o Automation: Provides extensive automation including self-tuning, automatic
backups, and self-healing capabilities.
o Management: Oracle’s ADW automates many administrative tasks, but some
configurations might still require user input, especially for more complex setups.
• Snowflake:
o Automation: Highly automated with features like automatic scaling, auto-suspend,
and auto-resume. Snowflake manages infrastructure and scaling seamlessly.
o Management: Offers minimal management overhead with automatic optimizations,
making it very user-friendly.
4. Performance and Scalability
• ADW:
o Performance: Performance tuning is automatic but based on Oracle’s traditional
database optimizations. It can be highly performant for complex queries due to its
underlying database technology.
o Scalability: Supports horizontal scaling, but you might need to manage compute
clusters and storage more directly compared to Snowflake.
• Snowflake:
o Performance: Known for high performance due to its architecture, which allows
multiple compute clusters to operate independently without contention.
o Scalability: Provides automatic scaling with virtually unlimited compute and storage
resources. Snowflake can handle varying workloads with ease due to its elastic
compute resources.
5. Data Integration and Support
• ADW:
o Data Integration: Integrates well with other Oracle Cloud services and tools, but
may require additional configuration for integration with non-Oracle tools.
o Support for Data Types: Supports a wide range of data types including structured
and semi-structured data.
• Snowflake:
o Data Integration: Known for its ease of integration with a variety of data sources
and tools, including third-party ETL and BI tools.
o Support for Data Types: Provides strong support for both structured and semi-
structured data (e.g., JSON, Avro, Parquet).
6. Security
• ADW:
o Security Features: Includes automated encryption, access controls, and auditing.
Oracle has a strong focus on security, which is a significant part of its offering.
o Compliance: Meets various industry compliance standards and provides
comprehensive security features.
• Snowflake:
o Security Features: Offers built-in encryption, access controls, and compliance
certifications. Snowflake provides a secure environment with automatic security
updates.
o Compliance: Adheres to major compliance and regulatory standards, including
GDPR, HIPAA, and more.
7. Cost Structure
• ADW:
o Pricing Model: Pricing can be based on the provisioned resources, including compute
and storage. Oracle offers a pay-as-you-go model and can also provide reserved
instances.
o Cost Management: Costs can be controlled through management of resources and
usage.
• Snowflake:
o Pricing Model: Uses a pay-per-usage model for compute and storage, with separate
charges for each. It also offers on-demand pricing and capacity-based pricing options.
o Cost Management: Provides features like auto-suspend and auto-resume to help
manage costs effectively.
 Summary
• Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse is highly automated with a strong focus on
Oracle’s traditional database strengths and integrates well with Oracle’s ecosystem.
• Snowflake is designed to be a cloud-native solution with strong support for
scalability, ease of use, and integration across various platforms.
A modern data warehouse is a cloud-based or hybrid solution designed to handle the
demands of today's data-driven organizations. It emphasizes scalability, flexibility,
and ease of use while integrating various data sources and enabling advanced
analytics. Here’s an overview of what characterizes a modern data warehouse and
some key considerations:
Characteristics of a Modern Data Warehouse
1. Cloud-Native Architecture
o Scalability: Easily scales compute and storage resources independently to handle
large and variable workloads.
o Elasticity: Automatically adjusts resources based on demand, ensuring efficient use
of resources and cost management.
o Managed Services: Typically offered as a fully managed service, reducing the need
for manual maintenance and administrative overhead.
2. Data Integration and Management
o Support for Diverse Data Types: Handles structured, semi-structured, and
unstructured data, including JSON, XML, and text files.
o Real-Time Data Processing: Capable of ingesting and processing data in real time
or near-real time to support dynamic analytics.
o Data Lake Integration: Integrates with data lakes to provide a unified view of data
across different storage formats and sources.
3. Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning
o Built-In Analytics: Provides tools for advanced analytics, including SQL-based
querying, data mining, and business intelligence.
o Machine Learning Integration: Often includes integration with machine learning
frameworks and tools for predictive analytics and data science.
4. Performance and Optimization
o Automatic Tuning: Uses algorithms to automatically optimize query performance,
resource allocation, and workload management.
o Concurrency Handling: Efficiently manages multiple users and queries concurrently
without performance degradation.
5. Security and Compliance
o Data Encryption: Ensures data is encrypted both at rest and in transit.
o Access Controls: Provides granular access control and user management features.
o Compliance: Adheres to various industry regulations and standards such as GDPR,
HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.
6. Cost Management
o Pay-as-You-Go: Uses a pay-per-use or consumption-based pricing model, allowing
organizations to pay only for the resources they use.
o Cost Optimization Tools: Includes features for monitoring and managing costs, such
as auto-suspend and auto-resume for compute resources.
Popular Modern Data Warehousing Solutions
1. Snowflake
o Architecture: Cloud-native with a multi-cluster architecture separating compute and
storage.
o Features: Offers automatic scaling, advanced data sharing capabilities, and strong
support for both structured and semi-structured data.
2. Amazon Redshift
o Architecture: Fully managed data warehouse service with a columnar storage format.
o Features: Provides high performance for complex queries, integrates with AWS
ecosystem, and supports both on-demand and reserved instances.
3. Google BigQuery
o Architecture: Serverless and highly scalable with a focus on big data analytics.
o Features: Offers real-time analytics, integration with Google Cloud services, and
automatic scaling.
4. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL Data Warehouse)
o Architecture: Combines big data and data warehousing capabilities with a serverless
SQL pool and on-demand querying.
o Features: Integrates with Azure ecosystem, supports both on-demand and
provisioned query capabilities, and offers advanced analytics.
5. Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse
o Architecture: Cloud-based with automated management features.
o Features: Offers automatic tuning, scaling, and security, and integrates well with
Oracle’s broader cloud services.
Key Considerations When Choosing a Modern Data Warehouse
1. Data Requirements: Assess whether you need support for structured, semi-
structured, or unstructured data and how real-time processing fits into your use case.
2. Integration Needs: Evaluate how well the data warehouse integrates with your
existing data sources, analytics tools, and business applications.
3. Performance and Scalability: Consider the performance requirements of your
workloads and the scalability options offered by the data warehouse.
4. Cost: Analyze the pricing model and ensure it aligns with your budget and usage
patterns. Look for features that help manage and optimize costs.
5. Security and Compliance: Ensure the data warehouse meets your security and
compliance requirements, including data encryption, access controls, and audit
capabilities.
Conclusion
A modern data warehouse provides a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution for
managing and analyzing large volumes of data. It leverages cloud technologies to
offer advanced features and integrations, making it easier for organizations to derive
actionable insights and support data-driven decision-making.