Data Mining Warehouse

Generally speaking, a data mining warehouse refers to a database created for the sole purpose of enabling the use of data mining software and techniques to analyze and understand key data elements as they relate to the business.  The use of a data mining warehouse is often associated with larger organizations that have vast amounts of data. 

Data Mining Warehouse Challenge

The challenge of having large amounts of data leads to the need for tools and techniques that can help gather key pieces of information (data mining) from that data to help the business make decisions at all levels of the organization, strategic, tactical and operational.  Data mining warehouse deployments can be long and expensive operations and are often associated with high failure rates, typically due to lack of buy-in from departments and key individuals who are affected by the data mining warehouse project.

Uses of Data Mining Warehouse

Before we can understand the risks and challenges associated with a data mining warehouse, we need to first understand the core need and the use for the data mining warehouse.  As businesses expand they begin to collect data; this has been even more true over the past decade as storage costs have decreased rapidly and the ability of even small businesses to collect vast amounts of data on their customers and all aspects of their operations has increased.  With this copious amount of data decision makers have an increased difficulty finding the key indicators that provide insight into how the business is doing and where it should go next. The data mining warehouse attempts to address this problem by being a collector of critical data for the business for the sole purpose of analysis.  It's very common for a data mining warehouse to be the repository of critical data from a multitude of sources and systems - all available for data mining applications.

Risks and Challenges Associated with the Data Mining Warehouse

While the rewards associated with a data mining warehouse are many, the risks along the way are numerous and can often derail a data mining warehouse project.  Data mining warehouse deployments can be very complicated and require buy-in from all levels and departments in the organization.  The reason for this is simple.  As the data mining warehouse is being planned and deployed it will need to access data that is owned and controlled by various key individuals and departments.  Without getting their buy-in and understanding of the benefits of the data mining warehouse the project could ultimately be doomed to fail.

Does Your Business Need a Data Mining Warehouse?

Deciding if your business could benefit from a data mining warehouse is as simple as deciding if your business could benefit from more knowledge.  The short answer is always going to be yes.  The better question, however, is if your business can afford a data mining warehouse.  If the answer is no, or at least, not yet, there are other alternatives.  New software is becoming available from companies like EMANIO that lets you benefit from data mining without having to have a data mining warehouse, while giving you the ability to use a data mining warehouse once your business is ready.