Data Mart

Data Mart

A data mart is a simple form of a data warehouse that is focused on a single subject (or functional area), such as sales, finance or marketing. Data marts are often built and controlled by a single department within an organization. Given their single-subject focus, data marts usually draw data from only a few sources. The sources could be internal operational systems, a central data warehouse, or external data.^[1]

1 Dependent and Independent Data Marts

There are two basic types of data marts: dependent and independent. The categorization is based primarily on the data source that feeds the data mart. Dependent data marts draw data from a central data warehouse that has already been created. Independent data marts, in contrast, are standalone systems built by drawing data directly from operational or external sources of data, or both.

The main difference between independent and dependent data marts is how you populate the data mart; that is, how you get data out of the sources and into the data mart. This step, called the Extraction-Transformation-and Loading (ETL) process, involves moving data from operational systems, filtering it, and loading it into the data mart.With dependent data marts, this process is somewhat simplified because formatted and summarized (clean) data has already been loaded into the central data warehouse. The ETL process for dependent data marts is mostly a process of identifying the right subset of data relevant to the chosen data mart subject and moving a copy of it, perhaps in a summarized form.

With independent data marts, however, you must deal with all aspects of the ETL process, much as you do with a central data warehouse. The number of sources is likely to be fewer and the amount of data associated with the data mart is less than the warehouse, given your focus on a single subject.The motivations behind the creation of these two types of data marts are also typically different. Dependent data marts are usually built to achieve improved performance and availability, better control, and lower telecommunication costs resulting from local access of data relevant to a specific department. The creation of independent data marts is often driven by the need to have a solution within a shorter time.

2 Steps in Implementing a Data Mart

Simply stated, the major steps in implementing a data mart are to design the schema, construct the physical storage, populate the data mart with data from source systems, access it to make informed decisions, and manage it over time.

          Designing

          Constructing

          Populating

          Accessing

          Managing

          Designing

The design step is first in the data mart process. This step covers all of the tasks from initiating the request for a data mart through gathering information about the requirements, and developing the logical and physical design of the data mart. The design step involves the following tasks:

          Gathering the business and technical requirements

          Identifying data sources

          Selecting the appropriate subset of data

          Designing the logical and physical structure of the data mart

          Constructing

This step includes creating the physical database and the logical structures associated with the data mart to provide fast and efficient access to the data. This step involves the following tasks:

          Creating the physical database and storage structures, such as tablespaces, associated with the data mart

          Creating the schema objects, such as tables and indexes defined in the design step

          Determining how best to set up the tables and the access structures

          Populating

The populating step covers all of the tasks related to getting the data from the source, cleaning it up, modifying it to the right format and level of detail, and moving it into the data mart. More formally stated, the populating step involves the following tasks:

          Mapping data sources to target data structures

          Extracting data

          Cleansing and transforming the data

          Loading data into the data mart

          Creating and storing metadata

4. Accessing

The accessing step involves putting the data to use: querying the data, analyzing it, creating reports, charts, and graphs, and publishing these. Typically, the end user uses a graphical front-end tool to submit queries to the database and display the results of the queries. The accessing step requires that you perform the following tasks:

          Set up an intermediate layer for the front-end tool to use. This layer, the metalayer, translates database structures and object names into business terms, so that the end user can interact with the data mart using terms that relate to the business function.

          Maintain and manage these business interfaces.

          Set up and manage database structures, like summarized tables, that help queries submitted through the front-end tool execute quickly and efficiently.

          Managing

This step involves managing the data mart over its lifetime. In this step, you perform management tasks such as the following:

          Providing secure access to the data

          Managing the growth of the data

          Optimizing the system for better performance

          Ensuring the availability of data even with system failures

3 Data Mart issues

Data mart functionality -- -- > the capabilities of data marts have increased with the growth in their popularity

Data mart size -- -- > the performance deteriorates as data marts grow in size, so need to reduce the size of data marts to gain improvements in performance

Data mart load performance -- -- > two critical components: end-user response time and data loading performanceto increment DB updating so that only cells affected by the change are updated and not the entire MDDB structure.