Several sources make a distinction between a “Data Mart” and a “Data Warehouse”.

Question

Several sources make a distinction between a “Data Mart” and a “Data Warehouse”. The simplest way of thinking of these two different data applications is from the real-world structures where they get their names. A “Data Warehouse” like an actual warehouse, is where we store our inventory of valuable data, and not accessed directly by our customers. A “Data Mart” like an actual store or market, is an application that has customer ready data and reports for easy use and accessibility by specific customers: individuals, groups or departments. Based on this understanding describe the value each has for a business and some factors in how they are used that make the design and data structures very different challenges. Also, in what ways do they work together and rely on each other?

Explanation / Answer

Data Warehouse is a store for dump of data which also includes unstructured or raw data as well as structured data. It is mostly used by businesses for analysis and reporting purposes as it stores company wide data that can be used for management decisions. As Data Warehouse consists of both unstructured as well as structured data, it is important to carefully differentiate the two. The actions that can be done in a data warehouse include Loading, Extraction and Transformation.

Data Mart is the data in the form of analysis, dashboards, reports etc. which are customer ready and can be used directly for understanding or reporting purposes. Data Mart is a subset of data warehouse where specific departmental information is held and accessed. It is relatively less complex compared to Data Warehouse as it doesn't integrate data from various source systems.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse S
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.