BUSINESS DRIVEN
TECHNOLOGY
Chapter Eight:
Viewing and Protecting
Organizational Information
LEARNING OUTCOMES
8.1
Describe the roles and purposes of data
warehouses and data marts in an organization
8.2
Compare and contrast the multidimensional
nature of data warehouses (and data marts) with
the two-dimensional nature of databases
8.3
Summarize the importance of ensuring the
cleanliness of information throughout an
organization
LEARNING OUTCOMES
8.4
Define the relationship between backup and
recovery
8.5
Illustrate the five characteristics of adaptable
systems
CHAPTER EIGHT OVERVIEW
• This chapter takes a step beyond databases and
discusses data warehouses and data mining
• It also discusses the importance of building
systems that operate efficiently and effectively
DATA WAREHOUSE FUNDAMENTALS
• Data warehouse – a logical collection of
information – gathered from many different
operational databases – that supports business
analysis activities and decision-making tasks
• The primary purpose of a data warehouse is to
aggregate information throughout an organization
into a single repository for decision-making
purposes
DATA WAREHOUSE FUNDAMENTALS
• Extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) –
a process that extracts information from internal
and external databases, transforms the information
using a common set of enterprise definitions, and
loads the information into a data warehouse
• Data mart – contains a subset of data warehouse
information
DATA WAREHOUSE FUNDAMENTALS
DATA WAREHOUSE FUNDAMENTALS
• Data Warehouse Model
MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS AND DATA
MINING
• Databases contain information in a series of twodimensional tables
• In a data warehouse and data mart, information is
multidimensional, it contains layers of columns and
rows
– Dimension – a particular attribute of information
MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS AND DATA
MINING
• Cube – common term for the representation of
multidimensional information
MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS AND DATA
MINING
• Data mining – the process of analyzing data to extract
information not offered by the raw data alone
• To perform data mining users need data-mining tools
– Data-mining tools – use a variety of techniques to find patterns
and relationships in large volumes of information and infer rules
from them that predict future behavior and guide decision making
– Include query tools, reporting tools, multidimensional analysis
tools, statistical tools, and intelligent agents
MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS AND DATA
MINING
INFORMATION CLEANSING OR
SCRUBBING
• An organization must maintain high-quality data in
the data warehouse
• Information cleansing and scrubbing – a
process that weeds out and fixes or discards
inconsistent, incorrect, or incomplete information
KEEPING BUSINESS OPERATIONS
RUNNING SMOOTHLY
•
Organizations must protect themselves from
system failures and crashes
•
Three primary steps an organization can take to
protect its systems:
1. Develop an appropriate backup and recovery strategy
2. Create a disaster recovery plan
3. Build adaptable business systems
BACKUP AND RECOVERY STRATEGY
•
Backup – an exact copy of a system’s
information
•
Recovery – the ability to get a system up and
running in the event of a system crash or failure
and includes restoring the information backup
DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN
•
Disaster recovery plan – a detailed process for
recovering information or an IT system in the
event of a catastrophic disaster
– Hot site – a separate and fully equipped facility
where the company can move immediately after a
disaster and resume business
– Cold site – a separate facility that does not have any
computer equipment, but is a place where employees
can move after the disaster
DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN
•
Disaster recovery cost curve charts:
1. The cost to the organization of the unavailability of
information and technology
2. The cost to the organization of recovering from a
disaster over time
BUILDING ADAPTABLE SYSTEMS
•
Five characteristics of adaptable systems:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Flexibility – systems must meet all types of business changes
Scalability – refers to how well a system can adapt to
increased demands
Reliability – ensures all systems are functioning correctly and
providing accurate information
Availability – addresses when systems can be accessed by
employees, customers, and partners
Performance – measures how quickly a system performs a
certain process or transaction in terms of efficiency IT metrics
of both speed and throughput
OPENING CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
Searching for Revenue - Google
1. Determine how Google could use a data
warehouse to improve its business
operations
2. Explain why Google would need to scrub and
cleanse the information in its data warehouse
3. Identify a data mart that Google’s marketing and
sales department might use to track and analyze
its AdWords revenue
OPENING CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
Searching for Revenue - Google
4. Describe the fundamentals of a disaster recovery
plan along with a recommendation for a plan for
Google
5. Describe why availability and scalability are
critical to Google’s business operations
CHAPTER EIGHT CASE
Connecting Austria
• Almost 6 million of the 8 million people in Austria
have mobile phones, of which T-Mobile Austria
serves approximately 36%
• T-Mobile wants to build stronger relationships with
its current customers and move away from its initial
strategy of using a low-priced introductory rate plan
to attract new customers
CHAPTER EIGHT CASE QUESTIONS
1.
Explain how T-Mobile Austria is using information from
its data warehouse to remain successful and competitive
in a saturated market
2.
Identify why information cleansing and scrubbing is
critical to T-Mobile Austria’s data warehouse success
3.
Assess the potential impacts on T-Mobile Austria’s
business if it failed to create a disaster recovery plan
4.
Review the five characteristics of adaptable system and
rank them in order of importance to T-Mobile Austria’s
business
BUSINESS DRIVEN
TECHNOLOGY
UNIT TWO CLOSING
Unit Closing Case One
Harrah’s – Gambling Big on Technology
1.
Identify the effects low-quality information might have on
Harrah’s service-oriented business strategy
2.
Summarize how Harrah’s uses database technologies to
implement its service-oriented strategy
3.
Harrah’s was one of the first casino companies to find
value in offering rewards to customers who visit multiple
Harrah’s locations. Describe the effects on the company
if it did not build any integrations among the databases
located at each of its casinos.
Unit Closing Case One
Harrah’s – Gambling Big on Technology
4.
Estimate the potential impact to Harrah’s business if
there is a security breach in its customer information
5.
Explain the business ramifications if Harrah’s fails to
implement a backup policy
6.
Identify three different types of data marts Harrah’s might
want to build to help it analyze its operational
performance
7.
Predict what might occur if Harrah’s fails to clean or
scrub its information prior to loading it into its data
warehouse
Unit Closing Case Two
Evaluating Swiss Army’s Success
1. Why is accurate and reliable data considered a
system benefit for Swiss Army?
2. How would unintegrated information affect Swiss
Army’s ability to operate its business?
3. What types of data marts might Swiss Army
choose to gain business intelligence?
Unit Closing Case Two
Evaluating Swiss Army’s Success
4. Explain the disaster recovery cost curve and the
optimal place for Swiss Army to operate on it
5. Assess the importance of backup and recovery
strategies for Swiss Army