IBM Rational Insight data warehouse

IBM® Rational® Insight data warehouse (RIDW) is the component that stores data from various operational systems in a format that facilitates analytical reporting, and provides the engine required for query optimization, multidimensional analysis, and historical trending.

RIDW Model

RIDW contains three physical areas, all defined and residing within one database:

  • Configuration area
  • Operational data store
  • Data mart

Configuration area: This area is identified in the physical model by the CONFIG schema. It contains and maintains warehouse configuration information and serves as a reference point for auditing and tracking the extract, transform, and load (ETL) activity.

Operational data store: This area is identified in the physical model by the RIODS schema. It is the area where data from various operational sources is integrated. The process by which data arrives and is stored in this area is known as the ETL process. Data residing in this area is manipulated and cleansed to meet a certain quality level. The purpose of the area is to maintain pertinent information needed in analytics. It is not intended to be a copy of the operational source. The area is implemented as a relational model.

Data mart: This area is identified in the physical model by the RIDW schema. Data stored in this area is derived from the operational data store. It consists of fact and dimension tables arranged in star schema form (fact tables surrounded by dimension tables). A fact table is a table with two types of columns, a measure and a dimension. A measure column represents an aggregation such as a sum or count. Dimension columns are foreign keys pointing to dimension tables, which describe the measure.

Advantages

The advantages of the RIDW model are:
  • Query optimization: The separation of the operational systems from query optimization, enhances the performance of analytical and reporting queries. A common data model for all data regardless of data source, facilitates easy reporting of data from multiple data sources. RIDW implements the star schema style, which greatly simplifies reporting and analysis.
  • Cross-product reporting: Rational Insight extracts data from various development domain areas and relates them together in a meaningful way in the RIDW. This enables cross-product correlation reporting.
  • Historical trending: Often an operational data source only has the latest snapshot of data. The RDW stores historical data, and thus facilitates decision support system applications, such as trend reports.
  • Aggregation of information: The aggregation of information is useful for strategic planning and reporting. For instance, it helps you understand the cost of implementing a change, the effectiveness of organizational process improvement initiatives, and traceability between disparate artifacts such as Rational Team Concert™ and Rational ClearCase®.

RIDW has an open schema. Any business intelligence tool can access RIDW to generate business reports. They can also use Rational Insight Data Service if the reporting server hosting the business tools supports a REST architecture.


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