A Warehouse Design; Keeping it Simple

Abstract

MIT has implemented a warehouse, which brings several elements of function and design together. MIT's warehouse supports reporting, and acts as a hub for data distribution between systems. We've tried to satisfy both needs with an open flexible design. We've restructured our information, which comes nightly from source systems such as SAP, for easier reporting. The warehouse has row level access control which is driven from an enterprise authorization system (Roles). Other design features are a metadata driven data conversion and load process, distributed report creation, encrypted transport, and a system of automated integrity checks and controls. This paper covers the major design points and some of our experiences implementing and maintaining a warehouse.