What is Enterprise Data Warehouse and How does it Benefit Your Business?

Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) is the core of your data architecture. It stores your enterprise data in a normalized form. You can also call it an Enterprise-wide Data Warehouse or an Enterprise Data Store.

The purpose is to serve all departments and users in the organization with consolidated, integrated, consistent, and reliable data. In short, it is a single version of the data for all users across the enterprise. EDW has many capabilities that make it the most critical part of your data ecosystem.

There are several types of EDWs and one of the most popular and reliable is Snowflake. This article looks at the benefits of Snowflake EDW and how it can impact your business.

What is Snowflake enterprise data warehouse?

Snowflake EDW provides a way for you to bring together data from different applications and programs. It becomes easier for you to get a clear picture of how your whole organization is doing in terms of data.

In the past, organizations had diverse databases and systems that handled different information. They had a payroll system, an accounting system, a customer management system, etc. Each used their own database to store information about employees, customers, sales, financial transactions, etc.

So, when someone in finance wanted to see whether there was a correlation between employee salary and customer satisfaction rates to evaluate training needs for the support team, they would have to go into each database and pull extract information manually. It was time-consuming, error-prone, and expensive.

Snowflake EDW helps you bring all the information into one place so that you don’t need as many databases. And because it’s all in one place, it is easier to analyze and make sense of it.

What is the difference between Snowflake EDW and traditional warehouse?

One of the differences between Snowflake EDW and a traditional warehouse is the design of the two systems. Snowflake enterprise warehouse supports the entire organization, while a traditional warehouse assists a single application.

Another vital difference between Snowflake EDW and a traditional warehouse is data organization. With Snowflake EDW, data from across the whole company gets stored in one location. The design is in a way that anyone can access it from any application within the enterprise.

With a traditional warehouse, each application has its own data store. It means that different applications need integration for data sharing among them.

Components of Snowflake EDW

Here are the different elements that make up Snowflake’s enterprise data warehouse architecture.

• Data source from disparate systems. For example: CRM, ERP, mobile systems, etc.
• Data aggregation and cleaning area
• Data analytics and sharing area
• Data tool integrations and APIs

Benefits of Snowflake enterprise data warehouse for businesses

Here are some benefits of data warehouse in a business setting.

• Data integration

  Snowflake EDW helps you eliminate data silos across the different systems in your organization. The centralized data availability helps you access and update the necessary information in a few clicks.

  If you deal with projects involving bulk amount of data, collating them in one may look overwhelming. However, you need to consider it as an ongoing activity and should not put it aside.

  You can begin with a few domains and complete their integration initially. It will help you figure out issues that may come up. If everything goes well, you can bring all the data into the warehouse step by step.

• Improved reporting

  Your entire reporting exercise can become messy if you have unreliable data and systems. You may have to find remedial measures on your own or hire someone to do that. It will ultimately cost you time and money. Snowflake EDW solves this problem by automating the reporting mechanism. The data will be accurate and reliable to use.

• Reduced risks

  Traditional systems like excel sheets come with risks of data getting corrupt. There could also be other problems in the process, like human errors. Your team may end up messing with one of the steps. It could lead to data inaccuracies and other issues. Snowflake EDW allows you to stay worry-free as everyone will access the latest information at all times.

• Improved profitability

  Scaling your business becomes seamless once you get a hold of your data. Moreover, having a single source of truth about information has several benefits. Your employees will not have to spend much time on cumbersome data-related activities. They can focus on other productive tasks, leading to a better value for your business.

Enterprise data warehouse use cases

Here are the different areas where you will find Snowflake enterprise data warehouse useful for your business.

• Real-time data access

  The extract-load-transform approach of Snowflake EDW helps you make data actionable and usable at any time. It offers more benefits than the extract-transform-load method where data gets supplemented on external servers before heading to the data warehouse. The entire process becomes faster and more reliable.

• Data compliance

  You can review data sources seamlessly to identify issues within minutes. Snowflake EDW also complies with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) norms. It will give you peace of mind to concentrate on your business activities much better.

• Customer knowledge

  Snowflake EDW helps you understand your customers better by providing advanced data. You can improve your campaigns, overcome churns, and increase revenue. Predictive analytics and data-driven decision-making help you stay ahead of your competition.

• Single data source

  Snowflake EDW helps you store your precious data across different cloud systems and regions. It will still act as a unified dataset that users can query anytime.

Bottom line

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, you need all the help to make your data robust and reliable. And one of the most valuable assets is Snowflake enterprise data warehouse. It will be a reliable tool for your businesses if you have already invested in business intelligence solutions or plan to do so. Snowflake EDW will also help you employ data-driven decision-making for improved profits.

Omnepresent is a leading Snowflake consulting services provider that can help you make the best use of your EDW. We have a team of experienced Snowflake developers who can help you leverage the platform like no other. Leading businesses worldwide are already experiencing improved agility with their data using our services.

Contact us today to know more about our Snowflake cloud data services.