Jun 07 29
Why is data warehousing an enterprise swearword?
Posted by Angus Kidman @ 13:36 1 comments
The benefits of a centralised and efficient data warehouse are obvious, but it's even more obvious that building one can be a right royal pain in the back end.
Prior failures with building data warehouses have been so expensive and horrendous that the term can become an enterprise swearword, not to be uttered outside of the darker corners of the datacentre.
"I have been to companies where they say 'You can't say data warehouse', because it's such a dirty word," IDC analyst Alys Woodward noted at a recent conference in London on the subject.
Despite massive technology improvements -- not the least of which is the availability of fast, cheap massive storage facilities -- the process doesn't seem to be getting any easier.
Assuming you've gotten past the swearing, how can you make a warehousing project really swing?
Altis Consulting CEO Gavin Cooke, a veteran of more than 10 years of working on data warehousing projects, acknowledges that the range of technologies has changed in recent years.
"The number of players in the marketplace in terms of both hardware and software is vastly reduced."
However, he suggests, the fundamental issues haven't: "Companies don't have to reinvent the wheel. Most businesses are doing exactly the same thing as they were 10 years ago."
Where projects have gone wrong, there's typically a few obvious mistakes that can be avoided. The first is a familiar target: IT planning without any business relevance. "IT got in and chose the technology first, rather than defining the requirements. That mistake still happens," Cooke said.
And despite the technological complexity involved, personality clashes may still be a bigger problem.
"It can be quick from a technical point of view," Cooke said. "You can do the build part in as little as eight weeks, but you've got to allow time for the business to understand the data. It takes then three months to digest it."
1%
2%
Perhaps those doing the swearing should have a good long think about who is to blame. Data warehousing is just one option for addressing the symptoms caused by lack of planning regarding information requirements at ALL levels of management BEFORE the implementation of operational processes and systems.
It is not difficult people, understand your needs and then find a solution - do not blame the IT people if you cannot articulate your issues yet demand a technology solution to be implemented yesterday. Employ a good Information Architect to model your business from the TOP DOWN - i.e. based on your strategies, not on what data you can currently find. Then look for the resources to fill those needs and identify the gaps. Then decide whether a data warehouse is required on technical grounds such as removing query load from operational systems.
Data warehousing IS a technology decision but to work, as with any technology, business management must put in the effort to determine what is required from it up front in terms of a business information model. After all it is a lack of effort in that regards that leads to problems in the first place.