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Cloud Data Warehousing - Facts & Myths

In this article, we are going to learn What is Cloud Data Warehousing? Benefits of Data Warehousing, Myths & Facts of Cloud Data Warehousing, etc.
Submitted by IncludeHelp, on MAY 04, 2021

The covid-19 pandemic, forcing hundreds of millions of employees and workers to move all of the functions online, caught the entire world off-guard. Not every company was equipped with the technological tools required to combat the new challenges and issues.

For instance, before covid-19, most of the businesses had commenced their journeys of cloud migration. An Accenture research in 2019 figured out that almost 90% of enterprises had adopted cloud technology in some or the other form. On average, these enterprises had only 20-40% of the workloads in the cloud.

In the pre-pandemic era, Technavio - a market research company - predicted that the market of cloud-migration services would be growing by $7.1 billion by the end of 2024, resulting in a compound annual growth of 24%.

However, despite the growth, organizations seem to be sceptical regarding cloud data storage and warehousing, giving rise to non-practical, prevalent myths. In this post, let's debunk some of the myths regarding cloud data warehousing.

What is Cloud Data Warehousing?

A data warehouse is referred to as a repository for all of the data that a company has consolidated from different sources - data that can be accessed and evaluated to run a business.

This data can come from an array of data streams, relational databases, the internet of things and data systems. Basically, cloud-based data warehouses take benefit of the fundamental advantages linked to on-demand computing.

Image source: https://sonra.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/graphic_0619_2-1024x585.png

Benefits of Data Warehousing

• Data Quality and Consistency: An integrated database of historical data, relevant and consistent, helps the analysts in enhancing the work efficiency and offering more precise business insights. Historical data of a company assists in analyzing and studying a variety of time periods and trends to make a better prediction.
  A data warehouse also assists in the consistent accumulation and implementation of a high data amount that eventually decreases the stress on the system of production.
• Drives Revenue: Creating better, qualitative and standardized data is the primary strength of a data warehouse. And, this primary strength talks precisely about a substantial revenue gain. The formula of data warehouse works in a streamlined way.
  What turns out to be extremely important here is that these revenue gains develop on themselves over the period of time as better and improved decisions make the business stronger.
• Timely Access to Data: With data warehousing, business leaders and users get access to data from different sources as required. This way, only a minimal amount of time will be spent on the real process of retrieval. ETL, or Scheduled Data Integration, is an essential aspect of warehousing as it consolidates data from a variety of multiple sources and transforms the same into an efficient format.
  This enables users to seamlessly access data from one interface, decreasing the dependability of the IT team. In simple words, the use of analysis tools and query in a data warehouse lets you spend more time while performing data analysis and acquiring data.
• Saves Time: Considering that business users can instantly access critical and sensitive data from varying sources - all at one place - they can swiftly make informed decisions on primary initiatives. They will not be wasting important time retrieving data from different sources.
  Not just that, but the business executives can also query the data themselves with little or no support from the IT team; thereby, saving more time and money. This simply means that the users will not have to wait until IT comes around to develop reports.
• Enhanced Productivity: Data warehousing enhances the productivity of decision-makers in the corporate world, by creating an integrated database of historical data, subject-oriented and consistency. It integrates data from a variety of incompatible systems into a type that offers one consistent view of the company.
  By altering data into meaningful information, a data warehouse lets business managers to execute more accurate, consistent and substantive analysis.

Myths & Facts of Cloud Data Warehousing

Myth: Cloud is only for unimportant data, such as pictures, videos and music.

Fact: It is quite easy to understand why this myth would be prevalent. After all, tablet and desktop users generally depend upon internet-based storage for larger files, pictures, videos and more. However, the cloud can be a flexible solution for organizations and businesses. Some of the common cloud-based service types include Software as a Service (SaaS), Database as a Service (DaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). With all of these things, cloud offers way more than a storage space for media.

Myth: You will not have control on your files.

Fact: A lot of business owners have a fear that they will end up losing control on files when moving to cloud data warehousing. In case you are also dealing with the same issues, consider moving all of your files to the cloud as moving your items to a physical storage unit. Even if you don't have physical access to the content, you still own them, right? With cloud data warehousing, you will simply be moving the files' location and enhancing their security. While the files will be yours, they will be safeguarded by somebody else.

Myth: Data warehouse will be costing you a bomb.

Fact: This is one of the prevalent myths that is holding businesses and organizations back from exploring the cloud data warehousing options. Sure, there could be such situations when moving to cloud warehousing may cost you a few additional bucks. However, in most instances, they help save a plenty of resources, including money. There are a lot of factors that should be considered while comprehending if cloud data warehousing is making sense from your financial viewpoints. You will have to calculate how much it is going to cost to operate and maintain in-house servers, including the cost related to the IT department. Once done, compare the quoted number to the prices of cloud data warehousing. Keep in mind that you will only be paying for the computing power that your business requires. With maintenance and security regarded in the cost, most of the businesses will see a perfect opportunity to save considerably.

Myth: The cloud data warehousing is not secure.

Fact: This is another common and prevalent data warehousing myth. However, upon exploring the history of security breaches, a huge number of them originated in the on-premise data centers. Accordingly, human error has turned out to be the primary reason behind data leaks, letting the companies know that they need to enhance the internal sharing protocols of the data. Switching to a secured version of a data storage unit can be effective and simple for companies to avert data leaks. However, it is not recommended to simply assume that a warehouse would be absolutely safe. Hence, before migrating data to the cloud, you must cross-check security measures.

Latest insights & observations - Rapid growth and need of data warehouse is increased during Covid-19 pandemic because of Cloud Technology i.e. Cloud Data Warehousing is the Emerging Technology in the present scenario. Snowflake Cloud Data Warehousing is one of the emerging tools in the current market.

Conclusion

Every business has a variety of distinct requirements, and not all of them could be met by the cloud data warehousing. Consultants who will be pushing cloud services, on-premise or hybrid are sure to highlight the benefits of their offer while pointing out the negatives of competitors.

Given the confusion and complexity, cloud data warehousing is specifically ripe to this approach. Choosing the right cloud data warehousing is a critical decision. Thus, make sure you consider all of the aspects before choosing the right one.