Enterprise Data Warehousing with SAP

NetWeaver BI
By: Markus Severin, Key Solution Architect, Hewlett-Packard

The world-renowned data warehousing expert Bill Inmon developed the classic three-tier
architecture for setting up enterprise-wide data warehouses. In practice, however, this
concept has its limitations. With the latest version of SAP NetWeaver Business
Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI), the situation has improved greatly. Now companies
can integrate external datasets fast and consistently with their own pool of SAP business
intelligence data.

The enterprise data warehouse layers: extraction, data warehouse, presentation The clear-
cut separation of the three enterprise data warehouse layers enables the largely integration
of SAP and external datasets (Q1, Q2, and so on) with the company’s own SAP
NetWeaver BI data pool.

Companies are often faced with the challenge of integrating external datasets rapidly and
consistently into their data pool. The layer architecture developed by Inmon creates a
unified dataset that all departments can access. Through it, the complexity of enterprise-
wide data integration becomes manageable, so that fewer wrong decisions are made and
information loss avoided. The result is a single version of the truth – a harmonized
corporate memory that is universally valid.

Three-tier architecture
According to Inmon, the classic enterprise data warehouse (EDW) comprises three tiers:

• the extraction layer

• the data warehouse layer
 • the presentation layer, which makes the data visible

One of the main pillars of the EDW approach is the clear-cut separation of the three
layers and the processes that are based on them. But, due to technological insufficiencies,
it has not always been possible to consistently maintain this separation in the past.

In the first separation step, all the external data is transferred to the persistent staging area
(PSA) of the company’s BI solution. Data must not be lost, because the required datasets
are often no longer available in the future. In the data warehouse layer, the integrated data
is harmonized with the data that is already there.

This is no easy task, because companies use quite different semantic systems to model
their business processes. For example, identical customers are assigned different
customer numbers or identical customer numbers are used for different customers. The
result? Inconsistent data.

SAP already specifies logical data structures and nomenclatures. In addition, it has
speeded up the integration and harmonization process with the write-optimized DataStore
objects (DSO) now available in SAP NetWeaver BI. However, that is not always enough.

Avoiding inconsistent data

William H. (Bill) Inmon comes from San Diego, California, and is widely recognized as
the “father of data warehousing.” He has over 35 years’ experience in database
management and data warehouse design and developed the concept of the Corporate
Information Factory (CIF). In 1999, he set up the Web site billinmon.com, dedicated to
data warehousing and CIF and aimed at experts and decision makers. Inmon has written
45 books and founded several companies.

The concatenating key extension offers an elegant solution. This procedure attaches
additional information to the objects that gather the data, enabling ambiguities to be
resolved. The objects (or business content) provided by the SAP solution are, however,
only partially enabled for this and must be modified accordingly.

Nevertheless, semantic inconsistencies and structure-related conflicts cannot always be

resolved with a key extension. That is why a consistent three-layer EDW concept
stipulates a set of rules for structuring a harmonized data warehouse. If possible,
optimized DataStore objects should be used to write directly to the data warehouse layer,
because they improve performance. Alternatively, standard DataStore objects that have a
delta function, that is, change logs, can be used.

Furthermore, every time external data is integrated, the data flows directly from the
persistent staging area of the extraction layer into the data warehouse layer. Only here is
the data saved permanently, enabling the corporate memory to be formed. Data is
removed from the extraction layer again only in accordance with data aging rules.
If further source systems are integrated with the enterprise data warehouse, they just need
to reproduce the transfer from the extraction to the data warehouse layer. Here, the
external data uses structures that are already there, such as DataStore objects, transfer
rules, data transfer processes, and InfoCubes.

Clear separation according to processes and

responsibilities
Top priority is the consistent separation of the layers using layer-specific naming
conventions, processes, and data structures. Although extensions are permitted, the
harmonized data in the corporate memory must not be filtered or changed in any other
way. This is because the data warehouse layer is the company’s information foundation
and feeds the presentation layer.

From this point, the different departments access precisely the information they need to
do their jobs. Consequently, all analyses and evaluations take place exclusively in the
presentation layer. Reporting tasks have no place in the data warehouse – in other words,
in the second layer. Otherwise the data basis would not remain stable.

It is also important that the responsibilities within the individual layers are clearly
defined: The source system is responsible for extracting its data. The data warehouse
team is directly responsible for the data in the data warehouse layer. The relevant user
departments manage the processed information in the presentation layer.

Future-proof concept
The latest version of SAP NetWeaver BI includes integration mechanisms such as
preconfigured extractors for differently structured source systems that are already
equipped with business logic. Other content objects are not, however, able to
accommodate unforeseen data structures. Inmon’s concept for enterprise data warehouses
remedies these weaknesses and enables customers to respond to future challenges fast,
flexibly, and cost-efficiently.