At WhereScape we have started to be asked about data warehousing in the cloud. Currently the questions we are fielding are primarily relating to the cloud as infrastructure, rather than on models for enterprise data warehousing in the cloud. While the models for cloud based data warehousing are still being developed, it can still make sense today to share data and information in the cloud, which serves a data warehouse as a source or target.
For instance, common supplier information could be shared across the cloud and used as a source for a data warehouse. Other examples include small, specialized data marts that need to be shared across geographically distributed sales forces or departments. Using cloud services is particularly attractive for smaller and mid-sized organizations to build a data warehouse that can be accessed globally without the cost of building a local infrastructure.
This whitepaper discusses how WhereScape RED can be successfully integrated into the cloud using the cloud database services Microsoft SQL Azure and Amazon Cloud Services.
WhereScape RED Architecture
WhereScape RED is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing and managing data warehouses. It is designed to help build data warehouses faster than using traditional methods.
WhereScape RED can be used to build SQL Server, Teradata, Oracle or DB2 data warehouses. The core element is a single integrated metadata repository. The WhereScape RED RepositoryTM manages the metadata and objects associated with all of the elements of a coherent data warehouse implementation: source systems, ETL logic, schema design and client application integration.
The RED RepositoryTM is self-managing, self-documenting and fully versioned, so you can understand what you did when, and why, and you can restore previous versions at will. The RED RepositoryTM is transparent – everything is stored in the relational database of your choice, and accessible directly via SQL.
WhereScape RED and Microsoft SQL Azure
Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform that provides Windows services in the cloud. SQL Azure is the Data as a Service (DaaS) component providing relational database services built on SQL Server technologies. SQL Azure contains a large subset of SQL server functionality allowing you to host your database applications in the cloud.
