Spencer Nguyen - August 31, 2022
Did you know that a data warehouse has the ability to completely transform your business operation’s data storage? Data warehouses serve as powerful tools in a variety of use cases in the business world. Data warehousing implementation allows companies to better process, transform, and utilize modern data. In addition, data warehouses improve how business data is stored, enhancing decision-making and business processes through more efficient data integration and data management methods.
Data warehousing offers many benefits to business operations, and the industry is continually growing, with the global warehousing market expected to reach a worth of over $30 billion by 2025. If your business operation isn’t already utilizing a data warehouse, now is the time to discover how to implement data warehousing into your business operation before you fall behind your more innovative competitors.
Understanding Data Warehouses
When it comes to data warehouses, the most important element to understand is that a data warehouse is a system that aggregates data from different sources into a single, central, and consistent data store or central repository. In addition, a well-utilized data warehouse supports data analysis, data mining, artificial intelligence, data visualization, and machine learning.
Today’s data warehouses are often hosted on a dedicated appliance or in the cloud. Cloud data warehouses are a popular choice for companies looking to work with large amounts of data or real-time data. Some common types of data warehouses include enterprise data warehouses, operational databases, and data marts.
If you’re interested in learning more about data warehouses and how they differ from databases and data lakes, please check out these two readings, “Databases vs. Data Warehouses: What are the Differences?” and “Data Warehouse or Data Lake?“
How Data Warehousing Works
Now that we have a solid understanding of a data warehouse and its capabilities, it’s time to take a better look at how exactly data warehousing works. Essentially, data warehousing entails the secure electronic storage of information and data sets by a business. The overarching goal of data warehousing is to create a historical data store that can be retrieved and analyzed at any time to provide valuable insights into a business operation, helping the business to grow and evolve through good business decisions and accurate data collection.
Data warehousing works by collecting and organizing data into a comprehensive data store after it is retrieved from multiple data sources. This process can be better understood by breaking down the tiers of a data warehouse. An on-premise data warehouse generally uses a three-tier architecture, often referred to simply as bottom, middle, and top tiers. The bottom tier is generally the server where data is loaded and stored. The middle is where data is analyzed. Finally, the top tier is where analyzed data can be used for further analysis, reporting processes, or business intelligence tools.
Some top benefits of data warehousing include:
- Improved Decision-Making: Data warehouses make it so businesses can easily generate reports and data analytics in near real-time, which can help business users make better decisions faster and more efficiently.
- Scalability: Data warehouses can easily be scaled up or down as needed, which makes them a good option for rapidly growing business operations.
- Rigid Schema: Data is stored in a precise way in a data warehouse, which means it has a rigid schema. In turn, this rigid schema is beneficial because it makes it easy to automate the production of analytical queries and report generation.
Read on to discover additional benefits your business operation can gain from implementing data warehousing.
7 Ways You Can Use Data Warehouses To Enhance Your Business Operation
Data warehousing offers many benefits to business operations, from improving daily operations to solving complex challenges facing the business. If you are curious about how using a data warehouse could improve your business, check out the top benefits of data warehouses below.
1. Use Your Data Warehouse To Save Time and Money
First and foremost, implementing data warehousing into your business can help save valuable time. Data warehouses help preserve and store data from multiple sources. Of course, this greatly helps support the complete integration of company data. Overall, your business will be able to save both time and money through data warehousing, as the process allows all users to make data-driven decisions more efficiently.
2. Enhance Your Business Intelligence (BI) Systems With a Data Warehouse
You can also use data warehouses to enhance your company’s business intelligence or BI. All permitted users within your business will be able to easily access information and data from a single location. Your company’s decision-makers will no longer be held down, relying only on limited data from disparate sources.
3. Implement Data Warehousing To Improve Your Data Consistency
Another key benefit of implementing data warehousing is that your business will benefit from the improved consistency of your data. A data warehouse transforms data from multiple disparate sources to a single location with a consistent format. This consolidation of data into a single location works to greatly improve the overall consistency of company data.
4. Streamline the Flow of Your Information by Data Warehousing
Through data warehousing, your business can also streamline the flow of information. Data warehousing is able to ensure the streamlining of information as the process works to facilitate an easy flow of information through a network connecting both related and non-related parties. Being able to streamline the flow of information will prove to be greatly beneficial for overall business operations.
5. Earn a Better Return on Investment (ROI) With a Data Warehouse
According to Gartner, poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million each year. In the modern business world, data is a strategic asset that businesses can use to spur innovation, drive business growth, and gain a competitive advantage. A data warehouse will enable your business to make better use of your company data, earning a great ROI in the process.
6. Allow for Smarter Decision-Making Through Your Data Warehouse
The process of data warehousing provides better insights and allows for smart decision-making by maintaining a central location of information on both current and historical data. When all company data can be obtained from a single location, data and information can be used purposefully and effectively. In addition, this allows decision-makers to deliver a more functional, precise, and reliable analysis of the company’s valuable data.
7. Enjoy a Competitive Advantage by Utilizing a Data Warehouse
Implementing data warehousing into your business will help create a better picture of your current data and information systems. Having this big picture of your business’s current standings will allow you to better evaluate your risks and opportunities. In turn, being able to more effectively evaluate risks and opportunities will earn you a clear advantage over your competitors.
Getting Started with DreamFactory
If you’re ready to discover how a data warehouse can enhance your business operation, then DreamFactory is here to help. Register today to start your free 14-day trial and try out the platform’s frameworks for yourself.
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As a seasoned content moderator with a keen eye for detail and a passion for upholding the highest standards of quality and integrity in all of their work, Spencer Nguyen brings a professional yet empathetic approach to every task.