On Going Maintenance and Production Support

The data warehouse is created and initially loaded with the existing historical business data. Later, it is periodically updated with new data from operational data systems.

However, this powerful tool, which forms the information back bone for decision making in any organization is not a one-time-only effort. Whether batch-oriented or real-time in nature, a data warehouse always reflects the most recent state of the enterprise.  Keeping the data flowing is not a trivial task in the face of the ever-changing business requirements. In fact, the ability of the data warehouse to accommodate these ever-changing business requirements is what makes it such a powerful tool to have.

The implicit nature of the data warehouse to undergo changes makes its maintenance very crucial. Without proper maintenance, the data warehouse may suffer data corruption or the results it generates may not be valid anymore or the information it presents may not give a wholesome view of the enterprise. All these issues hinder an enterprise’s ability to capitalize on its initial investment in setting up the data warehouse.

In addition to issues that are operational in nature, data warehouse maintenance includes issues related to growth and upgrades of the data warehouse itself. In face of the ever-increasing data volume, storage capacity is always a concern. Moving the data warehouse from one operating system platform to another or upgrading the underlying DBMS may qualify as the only solution in an arbitrary situation.

The flip-side of the coin is the complexity involved in data warehouse maintenance. With domain knowledge of the source systems at one end and analytic needs of executive users at the other, coupled with all-time data availability, data warehouse maintenance requires a horizontal and vertical approach at the same time.

Keeping these issues in mind, the data warehouse maintenance has to be dealt with not just insight and skill, but also a methodology that ensures proper execution and guarantees results.

How Information Architects’ rises up to these challenges is highlighted by an overview of our maintenance methodology that covers various maintenance categories, the maintenance cycle and how we execute data warehouse maintenance projects.

Read more:  Information Architects' data warehouse maintenance methodology

Information Architects team specializes in providing comprehensive data warehouse maintenance service to clients . There is a dedicated team of experts to handle the entire spectrum of data maintenance issues 24/7/365.

  Our Working Model

Data warehousing requires foresight, extremely meticulous planning, huge investment, and precious time. Still even the best-planned data warehouses fail. These risks related with in-house development, turned the trend towards strategic outsource companies. Outsourcing data warehouse activities is the most economically viable route to access and harness the power of the data warehouse.

Offshore outsourcing is seldom practiced in data warehousing. Daily transfer and maintenance of massive data, different time zones, discrete working norms, and communication problems are few of the issues associated with it. However, offshore development capabilities offer outstanding value to the IT budget, delivering significant savings and faster time-to-market.

The slum in IT business in US, made it infeasible for companies to continue data warehousing in the existing environment. It weighed the options of in-house development, hiring consulting firms, or outsourcing the entire project to an end-to-end service provider. The Information Architects onsite-offshore model coupled with the cutting edge tools cut down the costs of managing the dynamic data warehouse very effectively.

The Information Architects onsite-offshore model coupled with the cutting edge tools cut down the costs of managing the dynamic data warehouse very effectively.

Information Architects employ an open architecture (vendor independent), open tool (product agnostic) policy. We help clients develop solutions in their own preferred environment configured to maximally leverage existing resources, therefore providing flexibility to accommodate variable budgets. Our methodology encapsulates the entire development process, from initial engagement through project management and implementation. Building on best practices as recommended by the reigning authorities in the field, this methodology employs successive iterations to generate discoveries and incorporate these into a mature and successful data warehouse.