Historical Information About Data Warehouses

Data warehouses have become an important part of information technology since the 1990s, and it could be said that the existence of data warehouses are a result of the Information Age. As the global competition between corporations continued to grow in the 1980s, it became crucially important for large corporations to process data and use it for the purpose of making strategic business decisions.

At the most basic level, data warehouses are somewhat similar to databases. They are used to store information that a company can use for making important decisions. However, while databases are typically used for one domain, data warehouses can be used to process multiple domains.

Data warehouses are designed to provide information about the company as a whole. They can provide executives with crucial information that will allow them to compete on a global scale, and the data warehouses can also be used to find trends and relationships between various entities. The data warehouse is proficient when it comes to dealing with database queries. They can pull information from various databases, and this can be done in very unique ways. Whether you are the owner of a small, medium, or large business, there can be no doubt that you have questions about your company that you would like answered. Many of these questions, especially those that deal with trends and business processes, are difficult to answer if you do not utilize computerized tools.

It has been said that information is the ultimate weapon, and it is hard to argue with this assumption. Throughout most of history, getting a hold of useful information was the biggest challenge to companies and organizations. However, the advent of the Information Age has changed this. While information has become much more easy to acquire, processing this information and using it in strategic ways has become the fundamental challenge. It is no longer simply enough to store information in a database. While this may work for some small businesses, it is futile for multinational corporations, entities that process millions of transactions within the course of a single day.

Because the competition between these companies has become so fierce, it has become imperative for these companies to spend a great deal of time analyzing their data. By finding various relationships between their customers, transactions, trends, and business processes, this allows the corporation to make strategic decisions that can enhance their profitability. One of the most powerful benefits of data warehouses if the ability of company managers to rapidly pull information from them within a short period of time. In most cases, data warehouses will be read only, and they are designed to answer specific questions. In this light, data warehouses can be seen as a type of digital business advisor.

While databases are used primarily to store information, data warehouses will analyze information, and they can deal with specific subjects. While data warehouses are very powerful if they are utilized properly, they can cause problems for a company if they are not implemented properly. Many of these problems will be financial in nature. Simply put, a failure to properly implement a data warehouse can cause a company to lose tens of millions of dollars. During the 1990s, many large companies learned the hard ways of implementing their data warehouses. Another problem that plagued the industry during this time was the cost. Like all forms of new technology, data warehouses where expensive when they were first introduced.

While they are still quite costly today, there were not in the price range of most small to medium sized businesses during the 1990s. Only Fortune 500 or 1000 companies could afford them, and it is to these companies that vendors tailored their products.

However, since many large companies have now implemented a data warehouse, a market has been created for small to medium sized businesses, and the costs involving with implementing a data warehouse have dropped substantially. While it was not possible to implement a data warehouse for $100,000 during the 1990s, this price range is now available today.

Whether you are running a small or large business, there are a number of reasons why you may want to consider using a data warehouse. They have played a fundamental role in the advancement of technology, and they will change the face of global competition for many years to come.