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Information Technology

Information Technology Enterprise – Database Services
Data Warehouse

What is Data Warehousing?

There are many parts to a Data Warehouse. Construction of a data warehouse differs from a traditional transactional database in several ways. A data warehouse is built as application neutral as possible. Additionally, data may be stored in a redundant manner to support better performance and reporting in a structured environment.

A data warehouse database is the central database used for reporting and other analytical type activities. It can be supported with one or more data marts, designed to specifically meet a detailed end-user need. ITE supports both Entity-Relationship and Dimensionally modeled databases on all three data warehouse platform options; SQL Server 2000, DB2, and Teradata.

Why Three Platforms?

Not all data warehouses are equal. A departmental data warehouse database may be hundreds of gigabytes with billions of rows in the fact tables or as small as 1 gigabyte with a couple thousand fact rows. Each platform options provides different performance options with costs that are very different.

The Teradata is designed for Terabyte size databases and offers a host of features, specifically the fact that it is a massive parallel processing system. DB2 can efficiently support a wide range of database sizes, from a gigabyte to over a terabyte. Additionally, DB2 is offered in a highly-available environment for mission-critical applications along with separate development, test and production systems. SQL Server 2000 targets small to medium sized data warehouse databases, from sub-gigabyte to about 500 gigabytes. The SQL Server environment is designed to provide a high-level of scale ability through the use of blade server technology and Storage Area Network connectivity.

About the Teradata Solution

The Teradata Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is housed on a NCR World Mark 4800 Unix dual node server with 8 processors and a 360-gigabyte, Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) level 1. The single platform supports all development, test and production activity, has a both mainframe and server-based ETL tools, and has a fiber connection to the mainframe. Specific features include;

• Full Customer DBA access within assigned space. No system DBA rights.
  
• Full OEM warranty support and maintenance.
  
• Firewall protected
  
• Unlimited database objects
  
• ODBC connectivity for application tools and programming

About the DB2 Solution

ITE established the DB2 platform option as part of the Integrated Information for Iowa (I3) project. DB2 provides the level of availability of all our platform options. This system provides both internal and SAN storage to provide a complete level of scale ability This solution offers separate production, test and development regions and is offered only as a managed service. The DB2 environment, similar to the Teradata environment, does not include specific data staging platform. This service can be added if you need. The specific features include;

• Full DBA support and managed migration of changes
  
• Unlimited end-users through either direct query software or through access tool.
  
• Full OEM warranty support and maintenance.
  
• Firewall protected
  
• Separate development, test, and production regions
  
• Unlimited database objects
  
• ODBC connectivity for application tools and programming
  
• RAID 5 data storage and SAN

About the SQL Server Solution

The SQL Server 2000 platform provides the highest degree of flexibility we can offer our customers. This solution provides all the components necessary to accomplish data warehousing; production server, staging server, terminal services access to the servers with full DBA rights within your assigned space, and can scale independently of the other users to meet your specific needs. The base configuration includes all SQL Server 2000 components available through the enterprise edition including support for OLAP cubes and Analysis Services. This platform was designed to support data warehousing from an entry level to a fully built data warehouse deployment with databases up to 500 gigabytes. Depending on how the data warehouse is deployed, database sizes in the Terabyte size range can be supported on this platform. The specific features include;

• Full DBA rights within assigned user-space.
  
• Unlimited end-users through either direct query software or through access tool.
  
• Full OEM warranty support and maintenance.
  
• Firewall protected
  
• Includes production and staging environment.
  
• Local or central database development environment are supported
  
• Unlimited database objects
  
• ODBC connectivity for application tools and programming
  
• RAID 5 data storage and SAN