Managing the ETL Environment
A DW/BI environment can have a great dimensional model, well-deployed BI applications, and strong management sponsorship. But it cannot be a success until it can be relied upon as a dependable source for business decision making. One of the goals for the DW/BI system is to build a reputation for providing timely, consistent, and reliable data to empower the business. To achieve this goal, the ETL system must constantly work toward fulfilling three criteria:
- Reliability. The ETL processes must consistently run. They must run to completion to provide data on a timely basis that is trustworthy at any level of detail.
- Availability. The data warehouse must meet its service level agreements (SLAs). The warehouse should be up and available as promised.
- Manageability. A successful data warehouse is never done. It constantly grows and changes along with the business. The ETL processes need to gracefully evolve as well.
The ETL management subsystems are the key components...