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.
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