Web-Enabling the Warehouse Chapter 16

Benefits of Web-Enabling a Data Warehouse Better-informed decision making Lower costs of deployment and management Lower training costs Remote access Enhanced customer service and improved image as a technology leader Greater collaboration among users

Challenges of Web-Enabling a Data Warehouse Security Business value Impact assessment Setup and management Tools and support for global requirements

Common Web Data Warehouse Architecture Warehouse database Gateway program Web server Common Gateway Interface HTML Client browser

Common Web Data Warehouse Architecture Warehouse server OLAP server Web server Client browser World Wide Web Client Windows clients Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Object Request Broker Cartridge Servlets Netscape Server API (NSAPI) Internet Server API (ISAPI)

Issues in Deploying a Data Warehouse on the Web Security: - Authentication and authorization - Communication confidentiality - Access and restriction management Scalability Availability

Security  Authentication and authorization:  - Password  - Digital certificates  - Authentication tokens  Communication confidentiality  Access and restriction management

Scalability Main concerns are: - Amount of data - Complexity of queries - Number of areas - Number of users Potential bottlenecks are: - Storage capacity - Memory - Computational cycles - Limits on OS resources - Network bandwidth

Availability The Internet extends the reach of database applications throughout the enterprise, organizations, and communities. More and more data warehouses require 24 x 7 availability Maintenance windows for batch extract, process, and refresh information for the data warehouse are shrinking.

Evaluating Web-based Tools Requirements: Interactivity Does the tool provide interactivity that covers tables, charts, and quadrants? Functionality Calculations, SQL generation, formatting, navigation techniques, layout controls

Evaluating Web-Based Tools Requirements: Architecture What generation of Web architecture does the tool require? Performance - How quickly can users access the data they need? - How long does it take to download dynamic client-side programs? - What trade-off does the tool make between interactivity and performance?

Evaluating Web-Based Tools Requirements: Design Does the tool require designers to do coding in HTML or CGI scripts to create sophisticated HTML reports? Administration Does the tool control access to reports by user, group, and role? Output Can the tool output data in a variety of formats and languages?

Evaluating Web-Based Tools Requirements: Scalability - What platforms does the tool’s main execution engine run on? - Does it support load-balancing? Databases What databases and native drivers does the tools support? Pricing - How much does the tool cost? - Does the tools support Web pricing?

Summary This lesson covered the following topics: Highlighting the main benefits of Web- enabling the data warehouse Discussing the main issues in deploying a data warehouse on the web Specifying the requirements for Web- based tools.