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Data Warehouse Architecture 

Different data warehousing systems have different structures. Some may have an ODS

(operational data store), while some may have multiple data marts. Some may have a small

number of data sources, while some may have dozens of data sources. Retail lie others has

the following layers!

  Data Source "ayer

  Data #$traction "ayer

  Staging %rea

  #&" "ayer

  Data Storage "ayer

  Data "ogic "ayer

  Data 'resentation "ayer

  etadata "ayer

  System Operations "ayer

&he picture below shows the relationships among the different components of the data

warehouse architecture!

#ach component is discussed individually below!

Data Source Layer 

&his represents the different data sources that feed data into the data warehouse. &he data

source can be of any format plain te$t file, relational database, other types of database,

#$cel file, etc., can all act as a data source.

any different types of data can be a data source!

Operations such as sales data, *R data, product data, inventory data, mareting data,

systems data.

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%ll these data sources together form the Data Source "ayer.

Data Extraction Layer 

Data gets pulled from the data source into the data warehouse system. &here is liely some

minimal data cleansing, but there is unliely any ma+or data transformation.

Staging Area 

&his is where data sits prior to being scrubbed and transformed into a data warehouse data

mart. *aving one common area maes it easier for subse-uent data processing integration.

ETL Layer 

&his is where data gains its intelligence, as logic is applied to transform the data from a

transactional nature to an analytical nature. &his layer is also where data cleansing happens.

&he #&" design phase is often the most timeconsuming phase in a data warehousing pro+ect,

and an #&" tool is often used in this layer.

Data Storage Layer 

&his is where the transformed and cleansed data sit. /ased on scope and functionality, 0 types

of entities can be found here! data warehouse, data mart, and operational data store (ODS). 1n

any given system, you may have +ust one of the three, two of the three, or all three types.

Data Logic Layer 

&his is where business rules are stored. /usiness rules stored here do not affect the

underlying data transformation rules, but do affect what the report loos lie.

Data Presentation Layer 

&his refers to the information that reaches the users. &his can be in a form of a tabular

graphical report in a browser, an emailed report that gets automatically generated and sent

everyday, or an alert that warns users of e$ceptions, among others. 2sually an O"%' tool 

andor a reporting tool is used in this layer.

Metadata Layer 

&his is where information about the data stored in the data warehouse system is stored. %

logical data model would be an e$ample of something that3s in the metadata layer. % metadata

tool is often used to manage metadata.

System Operations Layer 

&his layer includes information on how the data warehouse system operates, such as #&" +ob

status, system performance, and user access history.

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