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I see a lot of confusion on what exactly is the difference between a data warehouse and a data mart. The best definition that I have heard of a data warehouse is:
“A relational database schema which stores historical data and metadata from an operational ...
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I have previously blogged about Fast Track Data Warehouse, a reference configuration optimized for data warehousing (see Microsoft SQL Server Reference Architecture and Appliances). That was version 3.0 of the reference configuration that was for SQL Serv...
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What is the best methodology to use when creating a data warehouse? Well, first off, let’s discuss some of the reasons why you would want to use a data warehouse and not just use your operational system:
You need to integrate many different sources of data in near real-time. This will all......
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While using a cube in SSAS is usually a great source for reporting, it is not always the best choice. Sometimes it is better to report off of the data warehouse that the cube is built from.
For example, say you want to create a P&L statement using a financial cube. You want it to look like a ......
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When building a data warehouse, it is important that primary keys of dimension tables remain stable. To accomplish this, it is strongly recommended that surrogate keys be created and used for primary keys for all dimension tables instead of using natural keys. Surrogate keys are keys that are main......
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If you’ve been working with databases for any length of time, you have heard the term normalization.
Normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two goals of the normalization process: eliminating redundant data (for example, storing the same data in ......
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ETL is the most common method used when transferring data from a source system to a data warehouse. But there are cases where you might want to use ELT. What is the difference between the two? Read on:
Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) is a process that involves extracting data from outside sou......
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If you are the decision maker in your company and you are tasked with purchasing one or more servers to be used solely for SQL Server and solely as a data warehouse, be aware there are options outside of the usual ordering a server and internally installing the hardware, OS, and SQL Server.
Fast Tr......
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Source tables change over time. A data mart or data warehouse that is based on those tables needs to reflect these changes. This blog post will explain different solutions for solving this problem.
When moving data into a data warehouse, taking it from a source system is the first step in the ETL ......
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A fantastic white paper just released: Microsoft EDW Architecture, Guidance and Deployment Best Practices.
It’s a must read if you are a data architect, data developer, or DBA involved in an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). As the paper says, the focus is on the best practices and repeatable......
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