24/7 Real-Time Data Warehousing: A Tool for Continuous Actionable Knowledge

Abstract

Technological evolution has redefined many business models. Many decision makers are now required to act near real-time, instead of periodically, given the latest transactional information. Decision-making occurs much more frequently and considers the latest business data. Since data warehouses (DWs) are the core of business intelligence, decision support systems need to deal with 24/7 real-time requirements. Thus, the ability to deal with continuous data loading and decision support availability simultaneously is critical, for producing continuous actionable knowledge. The main challenge in this context is to efficiently manage the DW's refreshment, when data sources change, to recapture consistency and accuracy with those sources, while maintaining OLAP availability and database performance. This paper proposes a simple, fast and efficient solution based on database replication and temporary tables to change a traditional enterprise DW into a real-time DW, enabling continuous data loading and OLAP availability on a 24/7 schedule. Experimental evaluations using a real-world DW and the TPC-H decision support benchmark show its advantages and analyze its impact in OLAP performance.

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