Why Integer Keys are the Right Choice!
The blog subject has come up a lot during my years of consulting. Source systems, traditionally composed of shoddy code and poor data modeling, will often use “natural keys”. Such keys can be of any...
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An Overview of Source Key Pathologies
I previously made the point that source systems cannot be trusted to generate good keys. In this post, I will explore the pollution you may encounter as you dip your feet into the crude oil leaked...
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Transforming Source Keys to Real Keys – Part 1: Introducing Map tables
I have ranted enough about the key quality, or lack thereof, in source systems. It is time to look at how we will practically go about transforming the dirty source to the final DW model. What I shall...
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Transforming Source Keys to Real Keys – Part 2: Using Maps To Fix Key Problems
In part 1 of this post, I introduced the idea of map tables. These tables serve as an abstraction between the source systems and the entities in the data warehouse. In this post, I will describe how...
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Physically Placing the Maps in the architecture
Before we leave the maps behind, I need to live up to my promise of describing the storage characteristics of tables visited during the journey through the warehouse architecture. This must include the...
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The Curse of Self-Service
These days, we seem to be high on data and data related trends. My opinion on Big Data should be well known to my readers: it is something that has to be carefully managed and largely a fad for all but...
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