A data warehouse can be one of the most prized assets of any company. With so much data involved, it’s prime ground for analytics and operations management. Given how vital this is, managing a data warehouse becomes one of the company’s most vital priorities. Knowing some potential sticking points in advance will help clear the way and make that data warehouse run as smoothly as any other.

What You Should Know About Managing a Data Warehouse

A few basic points about managing a data warehouse will leave your attempts to do so much better off.

Cost structure isn’t the same. The commonly cloud-based data warehouse makes for more efficiency, as you’ll never worry about overbuying or underbuying for a while as long as you’re regularly monitoring the system. Given that about 35% of cloud spending is wasted, this is a very real problem.

Consider training. People with the necessary skills are in short supply. Since this is a comparatively new field, demanding the usual 7-10 years experience may fall flat. So consider training your own people in-house if you’re having a tough time finding outside help; look for points like cloud architecture or data-warehouse-as-a-service (DWaaS) providers.

Security is vital. Putting all your eggs in one basket isn’t a good strategy unless you watch that basket like a hawk. Managing a data warehouse is no different; a focus on security will help get you through the worst of troubles. One Gartner study says almost all—95%—of cloud security failures will be the customer’s own fault. Plan for this by beefing up your own security.

A blocked freeway. Data warehouses store vast amounts of data. How does this data get to the warehouse? Understanding your network’s connection to data warehouses helps ensure that you’ll always have enough free space. And that your network doesn’t turn into a bottleneck.

A problem of standards. The DWaaS concept is still comparatively new, and that means that a lack of standards has settled in. Use this as an opportunity to find out what works best for you, not what industry best practices are. There generally aren’t any to consider.

What to Do When You Need Help Managing a Data Warehouse

Knowing the basics of managing a data warehouse is helpful, but sometimes, the basics aren’t helpful enough. That’s when you should reach out to us at EmconIT. We’ve got all the resources you need to address the problems that come up—just ask our previous customers HP3 Par, Dell EMC, or NetApp—but we’re also small enough that we can give you the kind of high-quality personal experience that anyone would want. So, to help keep everything in that data warehouse under control, just drop us a line to get started.