In the previous data warehousing tutorial, architecture environment, monitoring of data warehouse, structure of data warehouse and granularity of data warehouse are discussed. In this tutorial, there is a comparison of operational environment with data warehouse system.
1. Difference between Operational environment and data warehouse environment
| Operational System | Data Warehouse |
| Data is regularly accessed | Data is first loaded and then accessed |
| Data is manipulated as one record at one time | Mass data is loaded or accessed |
| Data is updated on a regular basis | Data is not updated. Data is loaded in snapshots, when changes occur, new snapshot record is written |
| Key structure may or may not contain an element of time | Key structure contains an element of time |
| Time horizon (time for data found inside data warehouse) is short. [60-90 days] | Time horizon is longer[5-10 years] |
| Used for Transaction Processing | Used for Analytical Processing |
Developmental Lifecycle: Development of data warehouse is a step by step procedure.
2. Comparison of Operational Development Environment and Data warehouse Development Environment
| Oerational Development Environment | Data warehouse Development Environment |
| It is supported by SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle). | It is supported by CLDS (Reverse of SDLC). It is based on Spiral Development Methodology. |
| It is also called as “Water Fall” development approach. | It is also called as “Spiral” development methodology. |
| Requirement->Analysis->Design & Programming->Testing->Integration->Implementation | Implementation->Data Integration->Testing->Programming & Design ->Analysis->Requirements |
| Classic requirement-driven development life cycle | Classic data-driven development life cycle |
| Hardware utilization is static and predictable | Hardware utilization follows a binary pattern. Either it is utilized fully or not at all. |
3. Comparison of DSS Environment and OLTP Environment
| DSS (Decision Support System) Environment | OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) Environment |
| Response time is relaxed. | Response time is mission critical. |
| Response time is calculated from submission time to return time. | No Clear time for measuring time of return. |
Continue reading the next tutorial for facts and dimensions in data warehouse.
