The Data Warehouse is Dead, Long Live the Data Warehouse, Part I

“Le roi est mort, vive le roi.” This phrase — the king is dead, long live the king — marks the transfer of power from one monarch to the next. In times of potentially troublesome change, the apparent paradox and inner poetry of these words promise certainty and continuity. The phrase “la reine est morte, vive le roi” (when a king takes over from a queen, as recently experienced in the UK) lacks the same rhythm and authority. This past year also feels like a time of major upheaval in decision-making support. “The data warehouse is dead, long live the data lakehouse!” proclaim certain vendors. I say it’s time we revamped the ending: “Long live the data warehouse!”

For almost a decade, the data warehouse was battered by big data and the data lake — at least in marketing terms — and survived. It now appears threatened once again, this time by cloud, the internet of things (IoT), and the current business belief that all decision making must be nearly instantaneous.

Read more in https://www.datavirtualizationblog.com. Originally published on October 18, 2022.