BAD: Data Warehouses and BI Systems - Uninvited Guests in a DBA's Home

Everyone agrees that data warehouses are conceptually different to OLTP databases when it comes to design and implementation. However, few people appreciate that managing DWs must be approached from a completely different angle, and that many traditional DBA best-practices are simply not applicable or even counter effective.

Unfortunately, quite a few DBAs don’t fully understand the nature of DWs, don’t see a genuine need to treat DWs very differently and are reluctant to stray away from “tried-and-true” methods and techniques.
Moreover, many data warehouses are handed over to DBAs together with even more unorthodox components that are outside of traditional DBAs realms, like SSAS cubes, SSIS packages, SSRS reports, XMLA scripts, tabular models, MDX and DAX queries, etc.

So it is no wonder that DWs and BI systems are often treated as uninvited guests or even squatters in a DBA's "home".

This very practical session will narrow the gap between the DBA and DW/BI “worlds” by explaining and demonstrating some of the most important differences; and highlighting some of the typical challenges faced. Furthermore, it will address the typical “communication problems” between DW architects/BI developers and DBAs; and provide some guidance on how to overcome these issues.

Speaker: Borivoj Maras (SQL Server Solutions)

Borivoj Maras (MCT, MCITP) is a database and BI consultant with over 20 years of experience in the field. During his career he has worked in different capacities in various industries and was actively involved in literally all phases of software development life cycles. On many projects he worked as part of a development team, on several projects as a DBA and very often his role was a kind of a bridge or even a technical mediator between development and DBA teams, so he can provide a true insight into both worlds.