What is a Data Warehouse?

Data warehouses are information systems that store historical and commutative data from multiple or single sources. These system software are designed for data analysis, reporting, transaction integration of data from different sources.

Data warehouses are able to analyze and report the data flow of organizations. In addition, they provide amazing avenue for decision making, forecasting and reflecting an organization’s single version of truth.

Why Use Data Warehouse?

• Data warehouse enables business managers to access vital backed-up data from multiple sources at a single place.
• It also affords consistent information on several cross-functional undertakings
• Supports data integration from many sources and therefore reduces strain on the production system.
• Data warehouse enables you to reduce TAT (total turnaround time) for analysis and reporting.
• A Data warehouse enables users to access essential data from different sources in a single place so; it safeguards user’s time of retrieving data information from multiple sources. You can also access data from the cloud easily.
• Data warehouse allows you to stores massive amounts of historical data to analyze dissimilar periods and movements for making future estimates.
• Augments the value of functional business applications and client relationship management systems
• Separates analytics processing from transactional databases, improving the performance of both systems

It is equally important to check out each of these system characteristics so as to understand the contrast between Data Warehouse vs Database

Here are major reasons for using Database system:

• A database offers a variety of techniques to store and retrieve data.
• Data confidentiality and ease of access is guaranteed.
• Database acts as an efficient manager for balancing requirements of multiple applications using the same data
• A DBMS offers truthfulness constraints to get a great level of security to prevent access to classified data.
• A database helps your business by allowing access to concurrent data in such a way that only a single user can access the same data at a time.

Features of Database

• Offers confidentiality and eliminates redundancy
• Allows multiple data views
• Database system charts the ACID compliance (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability).
• Allows isolation between programs entities and data
• Sharing of data and multiuser transaction processing
• Relational Database provision multi-user environment

Features of Data Warehouse

• Data warehouses are subject oriented as they offer data related to theme instead of companies’ ongoing operations.
• The data also needs to be stored in a data warehouses in a common and unanimously acceptable manner.
• The time horizon for a data warehouses is comparatively extensive compared with other operational systems.
• Data warehouses are non-volatile which means the prior data is not expunged when new information is goes in in it.

Limitations of Data Warehouse

• Addition of new data sources may cost time, and is usually associated with high cost.
• Occasionally glitches associated within the data warehouse may go undetected for several years.
• Data warehouses are high maintenance systems. Haul out, filling, and cleaning data could be lengthy.
• A data warehouse may look modest, but actually, it is too complex for average users. You need to offer training drills to end-users, who culminate into using the data mining and warehouse.
• Despite best efforts at task management, the latitude of data warehousing will of always intensify.

Disadvantages Database

• The Cost of implementing Hardware and Software Database systems is expensive and may end up increasing the financial plan of your organization.
• Most DBMS systems are often multifaceted systems, so the training for users to use the DBMS is required.
• DBMS can’t perform erudite calculations
• Issues regarding portability and system compatibility with existing systems
• Data owners could lose their control over organization data, therefore nurturing some security concerns, ownership, and privacy issues.

Conclusion

Based on your business goals, you could chase either of the two. Once you get to know what works for your case, you will be in better position to choose the best for your organization.

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