May 3, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Hey guys, I was just wondering, what software do you primarily use in Business Intelligence/Datawarehousing, and are their any significant cutbacks in any proposed projects
May 4, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I had built data warehouse using Oracle (PL/SQL) and SQL Server (T-SQL and DTS) for the ETL process and the build process. I never used those 'fancy' tool to build the data warehouse. One of the manager did not like Microsoft and insisted to buy Abinitio, it cost a lot and they had to hire an administrator to 'take care' of the Abinito. The ETL processing time was not faster than DTS, and the process was more complicated than using DTS.
One project we used PL/SQL and JAVA to build the web user iterface for our customers. The other project we used .Net C# and SQL Server to build the UI for our customers.
One company I worked for used Cognos for reports. It was very expensive. I told them I could build the exact same report using Reporting Service (which is free with SQL Server 2005) but my manager did not listen especially the company already hired 6 people just taking care of the Cognos reporting system.
Then the same company bought Hyperion. They were told the system would be up and running in six months. They hired 20 contractors plus 6 internal SQL programmers, the system was no where to be alive after six months.
May 4, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I have used SQL Server Analysis Services and reporting Services with Crystal reports and Ad-hoc Aspx webpages with pivot com embedded to support the reporting as well. Oveall things are running smoother than expected. The ETL is handled by SSIS and Db's are of course SQl Server 2005. Overall We followed a consistent architecture for the whole project. It make the support and admin much easier later on. Also depending on the scale of the project u can try Oracle. But I figure SQl Server 2005 is capable of supporting most projects and can be capable of scaling up, esp if ur using 64 bit .
May 5, 2008 at 2:02 am
There is no short answere to your question. Before choosing the technology
you must define the purpose of the datawarehouse project. Who will use it?
What are the expectations? Put resources to make a data model of the data
ware house. Is it sufficient to store aggregated data (like OLAP) for reporting
purpose? Or do you also want to analyse details like invoice rows.
Of course you have to decide on what database to use. I use SQLserver 2000
DTS and 2005 SSI etc but also Mysql in a smal project. Do not rely on just one tool
vendor for reporting and analysing the data. You can do a lot connecting Excel
to the data base or use ASP for webb presentation or a analysing tool like Qlikview.
Keep control of the project.
May 5, 2008 at 6:23 am
The last post was good advise. Every company has different needs. You need to research the options - and there are a lot of them.
I have worked with Hyperion, Cognos, Teradata, and Analysis Services. They all have pros and cons.
I will say that end-to-end the SQL Server / MS Office / Sharepoint BI solution is the least expensive (short and long term) of the complete 1-vendor solutions. In my opinion, it is the Honda solution. Good quality, reasonable price, reliable, and easy to maintain. A Mercedes would sometimes be nice, but it can be hard to come up with the money and they often need expensive maintenance.
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