Data warehouse view – to the heights? With broken wings?

2021.09.22

It would be pure naivety to believe that, in this rapidly changing world, data warehouses would be the sole exception: the foundations remain fixed for everlasting life plus two days, we see the joy of those who strive for the report and the satisfaction in all colourful-scented, animated once-upon-a-time mission critical admirations complying with all specifications – narrated even with part-words and glitter-bomb dreams – handed over just in time (or maybe a little bit earlier), that we produce in an evenly increasing number, with conveniently appropriate development & testing time, thus expanding the spam letters going straight to the Deleted Items folder that has not even been opened for several years, and last but not least, after the handover, the operators invite us for tea because they are satisfied with the artistic value of the new charge, and because we improved on the full charge by three hours.

Or perhaps things are not quite like this? If we think about it a bit, the current ‘new demands’ have suddenly appeared like a lamppost behind a reversing car. They actually already existed at the very inception of the data warehousing world, we just couldn’t handle them and, to be honest, they couldn’t have been managed within reasonable time-limits then and there. And now here it is and we have to do something with the whole DWH world so that it is not just a necessary bad thing, an unknown, sluggish money sink-something in the background, but instead the fragrantly burgeoning flower of everyday business, the rocket engine of growth, the padlock on the increasingly fattening purse of savings.

There’s a glimmer of light far, far away. Maybe a homely snug cabin in the shiver-inducing winter where steaming hot cocoa packed with marshmallows awaits next to the beanbag, or maybe an oncoming, speeding steam engine with a dozing, overworked engine driver. I don’t know; but “Life’s a journey, not a destination”[1], let’s get going because the opportunity to finally comply with a few expectations – of course, not everything, not immediately, and not in full (that would be something altogether different: nirvana) – is here and now. I have a few theories that I will expound on depending on the tenderness of tender violence and, naturally, my free time.

Cont.:

Small enterprise, small data warehouse – Here is the ROI, where’s the ROI?
It is possible to develop in a smart way, but for whom? – developer’s lament
Big Data is the Vietnamese tiger balm of DWH – but for flat feet as well?!
DWH, AI, DG, DC – abbreviations one after the other

The author of these thoughts has already seen the data warehouse — in a fairy tale book, operated as a more complex thing than a wooden cube, and already drew two more or less regular rectangles on the board, connected them and then proudly signed off “A R C H I T E C T U R E”. An ogre in body, but in soul, too.

Author: Levente Erdey, INNObyte Architect

[1] Aerosmith – Amazing 1993