Data warehouse platforms are one of the most utilized type of Information Technology (IT)-related services of the majority of businesses nowadays regardless of the size of the business.
Data warehousing is defined by the type of data that it stores, and the people that utilize it. It is designed for decision support and Business Intelligence activities. The data warehouse is a separate from the daily online transaction processing applications that operates the core business, which thereby reduces the contention for both operation transactions and analytical queries of a business or an organization, however, despite its great innovation in giving smoother operations and data management for businesses, just like good things that we enjoy, it also comes with its own shortcomings.
This does not discredit data warehousing but rather give you a broader knowledge on the entirety of data warehousing so that you can maximize the utilization of it.
PROS
- Faster data retrieving- In many businesses, data retrieval is a painstaking task that often fails. Once you input your information and other important data of the business transactions, operations, customer information, and other valuable data, you will never lose track of it again and can retrieve it just by doing a quick search that will give you less than a minute of accurate results.
- Accurate error identification and correction- A lot of people have the tendency to commit errors especially when it comes to operating Business Intelligence (BI) applications like inputting raw information, however, data warehousing helps in removing user oversight, before loading the data, the data warehousing system creates a point to show the inconsistencies and correct it all. This is extremely helpful for those who are always committing mistakes.
- Better integration- Data warehousing adds more value to your operational business application systems when the data warehousing system is fully integrated. The complexity of its makeup allows a data warehouse to translate all the information in its simplest form and in a digestible format where your employees can easily understand the data that is stored in your data warehousing system. For business leaders and business analysts, it would be easy for them to create the assessment, plan out, or sort things out on their end because of the integrated system that data warehousing provided to their business.
CONS
- Time consuming- Although the main goal of data warehousing is to simplify your business data management, however, it takes a lot of time for your employees in inputting raw data to the system. It may be very helpful, but manually performing data entry to the system is very time-consuming and tiring.
- Lack of compatibility- Data warehousing according to some tech experts have problems with compatibility on different systems which requires another Business Intelligence (BI) crew to help out on this problem.
- Maintenance costs- Usually, data warehousing has proven its worth when it comes to managing and storing data, but as your business grows, you are also required to expand your system’s capacities and capabilities which costs a lot of money in buying new hardware and software tools essential in upgrading your data warehousing system.
