A data warehouse, simply put is a vast storage of all relevant data available within an enterprise. And why a storage place for data is the next question that probably pops up. Its because data invariably brings out trends. A technical analyst scans huge amounts of data to find a pattern in stock movements. A marketing professional needs data to understand customers' interest in a product. Data is imperative to any business. And hence the next step to a data warehouse is Business Intelligence.
For more than six years now I have been deeply involved with data warehousing technologies. Over the years I have realized that though data has always been associated with enterprises and businesses, it is also equally important to an individual. A cleverly crafted data warehouse with life's data can bring out some very interesting trends of an individual's life. And there can be no better place to store this immense data set than the brain.
We usually tend to store only selective data. Only memories that interest us. And we conveniently forget lessons that we have learnt over the years. We commit the same mistakes again and again and blame life for being unfair. Life's lessons are best stored in the warehouse, indexed and ready to use the next time a similar situation arises.
A close friend of mine had lost money over futures and options in the stock market. And it was a big lesson for him. But instead of storing the data and analyzing the reason for his loss, he very knowingly invested a larger sum in a similar transaction and suffered even more losses. Surprising, isn't it? But thats how most of us are.
In our next post, let us explore how we can use data warehousing concepts to create data marts for parts of our life and how to build a perfect data warehouse for life.
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