The On-Line Executive Journal for Data-Intensive Decision Support
*** December 2, 1997: Vol. 1, No. 9 ***
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ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
THE PARADOX OF WAREHOUSE PATTERNS
by Dr. Kamran Parsaye, Information Discovery, Inc
Kamran Parsaye, PhD, is CEO of Information Discovery, Inc. He is one of the original developers of the concept of "data mining", having developed commercial programs for this purpose in the mid 1980's. He originated the concept of an "intelligent database", and is the author of "Intelligent Database Tools & Applications" published by John Wiley. Dr. Parsaye has a wide range of experience in the software industry, both as a research scientist and as a high-technology business leader, having provided guidance and direction to top level management of leading industrial and financial organizations, as well as key government entities such as the US AirForce. He received his BS and MS degrees in Mathematics from King's College, London, and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. His books on databases are used in universities world-wide.
Parsaye notes: "The concepts of 'large warehouse' and 'useful pattern' often interact in a seemingly contradictory way. On one hand, the larger a warehouse, the richer its pattern content, i.e. as the warehouse grows the more patterns it includes. On the other hand, after a point, if we analyze 'too large' a portion of a warehouse, patterns from different data segments begin to dilute each other and the number of useful patterns begins to decrease!"
THE DATA WAREHOUSE DATABASE EXPLOSION, PART I
by Sid Adelman
Sid Adelman is President of Sid Adelman & Associates, a Sherman Oaks, California-based consulting firm specializing in data warehouse and strategic data architecture. He co-authored a methodology and project planning tool tailored for data warehouses. Sid is an international speaker at data warehouse and industry conferences. He has written a number of articles on data warehouse and has chapters on data quality and organizational and cultural issues in Data Warehouse: A Practical Guide from the Experts.
In this first part of a two-part commentary Adelman observes: "At a recent data warehouse (DW) conference, the discussion centered on the incredible explosion of the size of DW databases. Many companies are already implementing in the terabyte (1000 gigabytes) range and it's almost a macho boast that 'my DW database is bigger than yours.' There seem to be few who question the unbridled growth or ask if all that data is really needed, justified or if the data will even be accessed."
DATA MARTS: FAST FOOD FOR DECISION SUPPORT GOURMETS
by Doug Laney, Consulting Manager, Prism Solutions
Doug Laney joined Prism Solutions following several years in the knowledge base systems field managing the development of complex decision support systems. Presently, he manages Prism's central region consulting group. He has headed the design of several data warehouse development projects and managed Prism's effort to produce Release 2.0 of its data warehouse development methodology, Iterations. Laney has also published several articles on data warehousing.
Laney writes: "Data marts have become the information management Happy Meal. As a seemingly inexpensive, expeditious alternative to a data warehouse, the data mart has risen rapidly in popularity over the past year. While "cheap" and "fast" can be good, you should consider other factors in selecting which of these decision support architectures your business should consume."
ACTION ITEMS
Marketers Turn to Data Mining to Fine-Tune Product Pitches
Data mining and database marketing software vendors are forming a union that corporate marketers said should help them tailor promotions to groups of like-minded customers. Two vendors that make software for managing marketing campaigns last week announced plans to link up with data mining and statistical analysis tools used to build predictive models of customer buying habits.
Whitecross, MRJ Technology Solutions Team to Build Data Mining Center
WhiteCross Data Exploration and MRJ Technology Solutions, two leaders in the field of data mining, exploration, and decision support, announced they have agreed to create a data exploration and mining center. The center will combine the WhiteCross' massively parallel processing (MPP) database server and Heatseeker datamining software with MRJ's expertise in applying a full range of techniques for mining and analyzing very large databases (VLDBs) for hidden information.
Canadian Bank Mines for Data-Based Gold
The bank of Montreal wants to offer its customers the right product, at the right price, at the right time. And it wants to make money doing so. The bank hopes sophisticated data mining techniques will help it do just that, using advanced techniques in mathematics and artificial intelligence.
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