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January 18, 2009

Ad Hoc Metadata Database--The Smart Alternative to a Data Warehouse

Let's face it. A data warehouse, while ideal for optimizing data for reporting and analysis, is often a luxury, especially for small and midsize firms. A data warehouse is complex to put in place and is expensive in terms of both cash and IT resources. In the real world, most companies of this size query more or less directly their transactional databases--that is, their CRM, HRM and ERP databases. This does save time and money, but it creates also some problems.

In particular, how does querying your transactional databases impact the implementation of ad hoc reporting?

When implementing an ad hoc reporting software, most CIOs run into several concerns. These concerns have to do mostly with the fact that, from the time the ad hoc software is implemented, their company will have dozens and in some cases hundreds of end-users reporting directly from their transactional databases. This can create problems on many levels, including but not limited to:

- Security concerns
- Data-safety concerns
- Non-standardization of data
- Concerns about the load placed on the transactional databases at query time

Many companies--especially small to midsize companies operating on finite resources--have gotten around this problem by equipping themselves with an ad hoc reporting solution that comes with the possibility to create a metadata database.

What is a metadata database?
A metadata database is what its name suggests: a database about data. It is a "ghost" database in which data mirrors that found in the transactional databases. Creating this metadata database while implementing an ad hoc reporting solution is the realm of the system administrator.

What are the benefits of a metadata database vis a vis ad hoc reporting?
Let's remember that the goal of ad hoc reporting is to enable end users to have access to data when and as much as they want (of course, with the proper safety measures in place). And these safety measures are exactly the main benefit brought by a metadata database. Here is a brief list of them:

Taking away the querying load from the transactional databases. These databases' function is not to present data for reporting and analysis--it is input of data from the company's various transactions. Moreover, a heavy querying load can slow the system down to the point that these databases can't fulfill their main task in time, which could be potentially disastrous.

Instead, an ad hoc reporting solution with a metadata database will enable the end-users to run their queries apart from the transactional databases, while still enjoying real-time updates of their data as if it came from their company's CRM, HRM and ERP.

Keeping your data safe. Once the sandbox of your data is open to the whole playground of your company's end-users with ad hoc reporting, there can be some problems. A metadata database will ensure that your data will remain safe even when it's reported on and analyzed by a myriad of end-users. Simply put, with a metadata database your users cannot wreck your real data, because it is not with real data that they are playing with.

Standardizing your data. Oftentimes, column names in the transactional databases are a) not consistent and b) not intuitively named for end-users to immediately understand. A metadata database gives the system administrator the opportunity to remedy both situations, since he has complete control over the standardization of data for ad hoc reporting.

Posted by The Ad Hoc Reporting Boys at January 18, 2009 10:30 AM

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