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Data Mining and Data Warehousing

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

Professor’s Name

Course

Data
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Introduction

This article is aimed at comparing at contrasting data mining and data warehousing.

They are two fundamental tools for analysing data or information and turning them into

quality and actionable knowledge. The two intelligence tools have various features and

benefits in the business and technological world. There is therefore the need for one to

understand each one of them; including features and benefits of each, how they are related,

and the major differences between the two. This article starts by discussing each tool, then

the major similarity and relationship between the two, and finally the differences between the

two tools.

Data Warehousing

In data warehousing, essential data collected from multiple sources is coded and

stored in a single schema which is then mainly used to report and analyse the data. A data

warehouse is designed to query and analyse rather than processing transactions (Bhatia,

2019). It is therefore installed to enhance management functions.it has four major features

which include the following.

 A data warehouse is subject oriented. This is because it provides knowledge based on

a subject and not the ongoing operations of an organization. The subjects may include

customers, products, revenue, and suppliers. It models and analyses data for decision

making.

 Integrated: to construct a warehouse, one combines data from multiple heterogeneous

sources such as flat files.

 Time-variant: the data of a warehouse only gives information based on a certain

period of time.

 Non-volatile: the data entered in a warehouse does not change.

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The major benefits of data warehousing are cost reduction, quality and consistent data,

improved performance hence quality production, and a timely access to data.

Data Mining

It is the tool that extracts patterns and information from data. It can operate under any

traditional data base but it is good to have it done over the data warehouse since it contains

quality data. It supports the discovery of knowledge through finding hidden associations and

patterns, construction of analytical models, classifying and predicting (Bhatia, 2019).

The key features of data mining include discovering patterns automatically, predicting

likely outcomes, creating actionable information, and focusing on large sets of data and

databases. It also has some major benefits such as direct marketing, detection of frauds, trend

analysis, and forecasting in financial markets.

The Similarity and Relationship between Data Mining and Data Warehousing

The major similarity between the two is that both are intelligence tools for business

whose main function is to turn data and information into actionable knowledge. The major

distinctions between them are the processes and methods they use to achieve the goal.

However, the two are interrelated in the process of turning information into knowledge

(Prabhu & Vēṅkaṭēcan̲, 2007). In data mining, analysts look for data by the use of technical

tools for querying and sorting through terabytes. Typically, an analyst develops a hypothesis.

For instance, suppliers who supply product X usually supply product Y within four months.

Running a query to ascertain or disprove this theory based on relevant data is data mining.

Business managers then use this information to arrive at better decisions regarding on their

understanding of the behaviour of their suppliers and customers.

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Data warehousing now focuses on describing the process of designing how to store

the data with the aim of improving reporting and analysis. Experts of data warehousing keep

in mind that different data stores are interconnected and inter-related both conceptually and

physically. A number of databases store business data. However, there is a need of

connecting the databases in some way to be able to analyse the broadest range of data.

The relationship here is therefore that a properly warehoused data is easier to mine.
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Reference

Bhatia, P. (2019). Data mining and data warehousing: principles and practical techniques.

Cambridge University Press.

Prabhu, S. H. J. K. H. K., & Vēṅkaṭēcan̲, N. (2007). Data mining and warehousing. New Age

International.