Data Warehouse Integrated Equipment Selection Guide

Choosing the right Data warehouse technology is never easy. Whether the traditional enterprise Data Warehouse software or the current very popular data Warehouse integration equipment, how to choose the right solution to meet the business needs of the enterprise is every manager to face, which not only involves a number of steps and precautions, there are many challenges.

Currently, there are a lot of information about data Warehouse equipment, such as articles of media coverage, white papers provided by manufacturers, demo of products and so on. But sometimes, too much information will have a certain impact on the product itself, how can users find the point they want from a large number of data? What are the differences between these products? Can they really solve the problem of data warehousing in the enterprise?

In the selection of data warehouse equipment, it is very important and the core point is to distinguish between the similarities and differences between them, especially each manufacturer will refer to "Better query performance faster, mass storage capacity, support advanced analysis" such features. But as technology continues to evolve, many vendors can offer products of similar characteristics, and can help customers customize to meet specific needs. So I think the factors that really distinguish these devices are: Is there a memory analysis function? Is it a traditional row or column database? The most important thing is, what value-added services can manufacturers offer?

As the market for integrated devices matures, many small, independent technology providers are caught up in the fate of mergers and acquisitions, which are integrated into a wider data warehouse and business intelligence product line, so most of the value comes from vendor services and the overall customer experience. Technical support, flexible licensing policies, data integration capabilities, and future scalability will be the primary source of data warehouse equipment competitiveness, not the cost of a customer's first investment.

So in this article, we'll introduce you to some of the guidelines and experiences for Data Warehouse integration device options:

Your current IT environment and internal standards. In the Data Warehouse integration equipment selection, enterprises should first look at their own internal environment, such as large enterprises have their own hardware and software standards, in the integration or add new hardware, it is likely to violate these standards, so in the selection of the time need to consider more definitions.

Business requirements and project scope. By identifying the purpose of using Data Warehouse equipment and the key objectives, enterprises can better understand what kind of equipment can meet what needs. Is it primarily for advanced analysis or is it used to store massive amounts of data for basic BI queries? This determines what kind of database to choose. For example, a column-type database has a greater advantage in analyzing performance. Secondly, you also need to consider the number of your source system.

Administrator knowledge storage and IT resources. Data Warehouse equipment is getting closer to the mainstream, the reason why we are not difficult to find that most enterprises are now into TB basic data volume, and they need more advanced analysis applications, and enterprises often do not want to do complex data warehouse to build work. Although integrated devices need to be tailored to their needs when they are deployed, they typically have a much lower deployment cycle than traditional data warehousing systems. Even so, some basic requirements we have to take into account, in general, no matter what kind of equipment products, need to have 3-5 administrators to maintain, these administrators need to have a certain knowledge reserves. Therefore the enterprise either hires the technical personnel in this field, or needs to carry on the internal technical training to be able to manage the integrated equipment.

Future growth factors. In the case of Data Warehouse device options, you also need some forward-looking considerations, data growth is an important element in the future development will be added to the new data source? What size does the business expand? Will more historical data be invoked? Enterprises need to differentiate between different devices: Some vendors support a variety of storage levels, and some vendors need their customers to add new hardware or upgrade their devices. In traditional data warehouse systems, there is a higher degree of flexibility for data growth, and when choosing a device product, you must combine technology with business growth assessments.

In a word, the Data Warehouse equipment market has certain particularity, the enterprise needs to take this into account when making the type selection evaluation. Each enterprise faces different challenges in selecting the right data warehouse equipment, and you need to identify key business objectives and compare the characteristics of each vendor's product technology.