Should Your SME Use a Turnkey Cloud Data Warehouse Service Provider?
Data volumes have exploded over the last few years, with countless predictions stating that they’re only set to rise even further. At times like this, a central repository can help break through the deluge of data and reveal insights that could cut costs and optimize processes across your business much faster. With cloud data warehouse service providers, you not only can ensure that accurate and up-to-date data is accessible from a central location, but you can also make data-driven decisions by analyzing historical data.
But what if your team doesn’t have the expertise or bandwidth required to build and maintain a data warehouse?
That’s where cloud data warehouse service providers come into the mix. With a turnkey data warehousing solution, you don’t have to worry about hiring additional resources or launch year-long initiatives to build a data warehouse. Instead, you can get in touch with a turnkey data warehouse service provider and have them take over the planning, design, and implementation of your BI architecture while you focus on other areas of your business.
Skeptical about whether a turnkey data warehouse is a good fit for your organization? Read on to find out everything you need to know about turnkey data warehousing and how it works to assess whether it would work for your business.
What is a Turnkey Cloud Data Warehouse Service Provider?
When building a data warehouse, you need to make a lot of decisions, including the platform you should deploy the data warehouse on and the best design approach for modeling your key business processes. Turnkey data warehousing services save you from the hassle by providing you with ready-to-go solutions that can easily be used without managing the technical aspect of building, implementing, or maintaining the data warehouse.
As an end-to-end solution, the turnkey data warehousing service provider will also train you on everything from integrating your data from heterogenous sources including emails, spreadsheets, and databases to automating the entire processes to minimize the time and effort involved on your part.
Turnkey Cloud Data Warehouse Service Provider vs. Building a Data Warehouse In-house: Which One Works for Your Business?
Deciding whether you should opt for a turnkey data warehouse or build one yourself can be tough. However, answering a few questions might help you understand whether a turnkey data warehouse is right for your business.
1. Does your team have the expertise required to build a data warehouse?
First things first, building a data warehouse is a lot of hard work. Even though the process may sound straightforward, you need to know where (and how) to extract data from, how to make your data reporting-ready, and how to load it to your data warehouse without affecting other operations.
Not being aware of the intricacies involved in the process can leave you with inadequate infrastructure and might even So, if you feel like your team does not have the technical knowledge required to take on a project as crucial as building a data warehouse, your best bet is to leave it to a professional turnkey data warehouse service provider.
2. Do you have a budget constraint for your data warehouse development?
Most small business owners understand the benefits of having a data warehouse at the center of their analytics architecture. However, building a data warehouse can cost a lot of money – especially if you’re hiring new resources to take care of everything from designing to development and implementation in-house.
Signing up with a cloud data warehouse service provider will cost far less as all the aspects of building and populating the data warehouse would be taken care of by the service provider. Remember though, since data warehousing is an on-going process, your data warehouse will need to be updated from time to time and maintained regularly so that it continues to perform optimally.
3. Does your organization need to implement a data warehouse fast?
Building a data warehouse is a part of the digital transformation efforts of several organizations. For this reason, most businesses want to expedite the development and implementation of their EDW and ensure that they are able to extract valuable insights at speed.
Data from the World Bank also confirms that it takes a few weeks – at minimum – to build a data warehouse. So, if your organization is pressed for time, it would be best to go with a turnkey data warehouse instead of spending months building one yourself. The best part about going down this route is that the initial testing and setup will also be taken care of by the turnkey data warehouse service provider, which means that you will have a ready-to-use data warehouse in just a few months.
Cloud data warehouse service providers will also walk you through the functionality and capabilities of the data warehouse and explain how you can perform a variety of tasks to update and maintain it so that you don’t have any problems managing your data.
4. Is customization essential for your organization’s DWH?
Customization is an important element of building a data warehouse. Since every business works in a different way and has multiple data sources and internal processes that need to be taken under consideration, it is imperative that your data warehouse is as personalized as possible.
While turnkey data warehousing solution providers will work with your unique requirements to build a data warehouse that’s right for your business, remember that you’ll have to communicate which capabilities and features you require very clearly to ensure that you have a solution that works for you.
Here, it’s also important to note that while architectures built in-house can be difficult to modify after initial custom coding efforts, the right turnkey solution provide will ensure that your EDW is flexible enough and can scale as your organization grows.
Ready to take the plunge with a turnkey data warehouse? Astera Software has recently launched a new turnkey data warehousing service through which organizations can get their hands on a fully customizable data warehouse that’s built as per your requirements. Built iteratively using Astera DW Builder, the data warehouse will be able to account for any changes to your processes by supporting slowly changing dimensions.
Since data needs to be updated to data warehouses constantly, the data warehouse will also feature incremental loading options to ensure that your resources do not get choked as you keep your central repository up to date with the latest transactional data. Complete with training and on-going support, our turnkey data warehousing service ensures that you’ll be equipped with everything you need to update, maintain, and extract valuable insights from your data warehouse at speed.
Not sure if it’s the right time to get a data warehouse? Check out the signs your SME needs a data warehouse.