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What is the relationship between the data warehouse and its portal?

Q:

What is the relationship between the data warehouse and its portal?

 

A:

Chuck Kelley's Answer: The portal would be the user interface to the data inside the data warehouse. The data warehouse is a database that stores the data that is provided to the user community via a portal (as an example).

Les Barbusinski's Answer: A portal provides a "window" into a data warehouse by seamlessly integrating disparate tools and technologies (e.g., BI, reporting tools, visualization tools, natural language query tools, Web services and DW-related applications) into a comprehensive decision support environment. It accomplishes this by providing 1) a common navigational standard, 2) a common "look and feel," and 3) a common set of services (e.g., single sign-on, content management, personalization engine, help facility, messaging, broadcasting, alerts, etc.) that all client tools and applications can share. Hope this helps.

Joe Oates' Answer:  First of all, a data warehouse does not require a portal.  A portal is a Web-based enabling technology that allows an organization to wrap documents and applications in a single Web interface.  As such, it is one way to disseminate the reports, dashboards and other artifacts of a data warehouse very inexpensively to a wide audience.  Additionally, most portal products allow a user or group of users to customize the look and content as well as security and other settings.  A portal is a great solution for certain types of data warehouse outputs but other types are more suited to traditional data warehouse presentation tools.


Joe Oates is an internationally known speaker, author and consultant on data warehousing. Oates has more than 30 years of experience in the successful management and technical development of business, real-time and data warehouse applications for industry and government clients. He has designed or helped design and implement more than 30 successful data warehouse projects.

Chuck Kelley is an internationally known expert in database and data warehousing technology. He has 30 years of experience in designing and implementing operational/production systems and data warehouses. Kelley has worked in some facet of the design and implementation phase of more than 50 data warehouses and data marts. He also teaches seminars, co-authored four books on data warehousing and has been published in many trade magazines on database technology, data warehousing and enterprise data strategies. He can be contacted at chuckkelley@usa.net.

Les Barbusinski is vice president of technology and co-founder of Digital Symmetry, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in the design and development of data warehousing and business intelligence solutions. He has more than 20 years of experience in data warehouse and operational systems development and provides hands-on expertise in data warehouse design, development and project management. Les can be reached at dwexpert@dsym.com.

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