Datamart vs. reporting Cube, what are the differences?

Question

The terms are used all over the place, and I don\'t know of crisp definitions. I\'m pretty sure I know what a data mart is. And I\'ve created reporting cubes with tools li

Answer 1

Remember:

Data Warehousing is the process of taking data from legacy and transaction database systems and transforming it into organized information in a user-friendly format to encourage data analysis and support fact-based business decision making.

A Data Warehouse is a system that extracts, cleans, conforms, and delivers source data into a dimensional data store and then supports and implements querying and analysis for the purpose of decision making.

KIMBALL e.g. consistently has defined data mart as a process-oriented subset of the overall organization’s data based on a foundation of atomic data, and that depends only on the physics of the data-measurement events, not on the anticipated user’s questions.

• Data marts are based on the source of data, not on a department’s view of data.
• Data marts contain all atomic detail needed to support drilling down to the lowest level.
• Data marts can be centrally controlled or decentralized.

CORRECT DEFINITION

• Process based
• Atomic Data Foundation
• Data Measurement

MISGUIDED DEFINITION

• Department Based
• Aggregate Data Only
• User Question Based