What is a data mart?

Data marts can improve team efficiency, reduce costs, and facilitate
smarter tactical business decision-making in enterprises

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What is a data mart?

Data mart vs. data warehouse vs. data lake Let’s talk
 Benefits of a data mart

Types of data marts

Structure of a data mart

Who uses a data mart (and how)?

Data mart and cloud architecture

Related solutions

Resources

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What is a data mart?

A data mart is a subset of a data warehouse focused on a particular line of business,
department, or subject area. Data marts make specific data available to a defined group
of users, which allows those users to quickly access critical insights without wasting time
searching through an entire data warehouse. For example, many companies may have a
data mart that aligns with a specific department in the business, such as finance, sales,
or marketing.

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Data mart vs. data warehouse vs.

data lake
Data marts, data warehouses, and data lakes are crucial central data repositories, but
they serve different needs within an organization.

A data warehouse is a system that aggregates data from multiple sources into a single,
central, consistent data store to support data mining, artificial intelligence (AI), and
machine learning—which, ultimately, can enhance sophisticated analytics and business
intelligence. Through this strategic collection process, data warehouse
solutions consolidate data from the different sources to make it available in one unified
form.

A data mart (as noted above) is a focused version of a data warehouse that contains a
smaller subset of data important to and needed by a single team or a select group of
users within an organization. A data mart is built from an existing data warehouse (or
other data sources) through a complex procedure that involves multiple technologies and
tools to design and construct a physical database, populate it with data, and set up
intricate access and management protocols.

While it is a challenging process, it enables a business line to discover more-focused

insights quicker than working with a broader data warehouse data set. For example,
marketing teams may benefit from creating a data mart from an existing warehouse, as
its activities are usually performed independently from the rest of the business.
Therefore, the team doesn’t need access to all enterprise data.

A data lake, too, is a repository for data. A data lake provides massive storage of
unstructured or raw data fed via multiple sources, but the information has not yet been
processed or prepared for analysis. As a result of being able to store data in a raw format,
data lakes are more accessible and cost-effective than data warehouses. There is no
need to clean and process data before ingesting.

For example, governments can use technology to track data on traffic behavior, power
usage, and waterways, and store it in a data lake while they figure out how to use the
data to create “smarter cities” with more efficient services.

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What is a Data Lake (5:17)

Benefits of a data mart

Data marts are designed to meet the needs of specific groups by having a comparatively
narrow subject of data. And while a data mart can still contain millions of records, its
objective is to provide business users with the most relevant data in the shortest amount
of time.

With its smaller, focused design, a data mart has several benefits to the end user,
including the following:

– Cost-efficiency: There are many factors to consider when setting up a data mart, such
as the scope, integrations, and the process to extract, transform, and load (ETL).
However, a data mart typically only incurs a fraction of the cost of a data warehouse.

– Simplified data access: Data marts only hold a small subset of data, so users can
quickly retrieve the data they need with less work than they could when working with
a broader data set from a data warehouse.

– Quicker access to insights: Intuition gained from a data warehouse supports

strategic decision-making at the enterprise level, which impacts the entire business. Let’s talk
A data mart fuels business intelligence and analytics that guide decisions at the
 department level. Teams can leverage focused data insights with their specific goals
in mind. As teams identify and extract valuable data in a shorter space of time, the
enterprise benefits from accelerated business processes and higher productivity.

– Simpler data maintenance: A data warehouse holds a wealth of business

information, with scope for multiple lines of business. Data marts focus on a single
line, housing under 100GB, which leads to less clutter and easier maintenance.

– Easier and faster implementation: A data warehouse involves significant

implementation time, especially in a large enterprise, as it collects data from a host of
internal and external sources. On the other hand, you only need a small subset of data
when setting up a data mart, so implementation tends to be more efficient and
include less set-up time.

Types of data marts

There are three types of data marts that differ based on their relationship to the data
warehouse and the respective data sources of each system.

– Dependent data marts are partitioned segments within an enterprise data

warehouse. This top-down approach begins with the storage of all business data in
one central location. The newly created data marts extract a defined subset of the
primary data whenever required for analysis.

– Independent data marts act as a standalone system that doesn't rely on a data
warehouse. Analysts can extract data on a particular subject or business process from
internal or external data sources, process it, and then store it in a data mart repository
until the team needs it.

– Hybrid data marts combine data from existing data warehouses and other
operational sources. This unified approach leverages the speed and user-friendly
interface of a top-down approach and also offers the enterprise-level integration of
the independent method.

Structure of a data mart

A data mart is a subject-oriented relational database that stores transactional data in Let’s talk
rows and columns, which makes it easy to access, organize, and understand. As it
contains historical data, this structure makes it easier for an analyst to determine data
trends. Typical data fields include numerical order, time value, and references to one or
more objects.

Companies organize data marts in a multidimensional schema as a blueprint to address

the needs of the people using the databases for analytical tasks. The three main types of
schema are star, snowflake, and vault.

Star

Star schema is a logical formation of tables in a multidimensional database that

resembles a star shape. In this blueprint, one fact table—a metric set that relates to a
specific business event or process—resides at the center of the star, surrounded by
several associated dimension tables.

There is no dependency between dimension tables, so a star schema requires fewer joins
when writing queries. This structure makes querying easier, so star schemas are highly
efficient for analysts who want to access and navigate large data sets.

Snowflake

A snowflake schema is a logical extension of a star schema, building out the blueprint
with additional dimension tables. The dimension tables are normalized to protect data
integrity and minimize data redundancy.

While this method requires less space to store dimension tables, it is a complex structure
that can be difficult to maintain. The main benefit of using snowflake schema is the low
demand for disk space, but the caveat is a negative impact on performance due to the
additional tables.

Vault

Data vault is a modern database modeling technique that enables IT professionals to

design agile enterprise data warehouses. This approach enforces a layered structure and
has been developed specifically to combat issues with agility, flexibility, and scalability
that arise when using the other schema models.

Data vault eliminates star schema's need for cleansing and streamlines the addition of
new data sources without any disruption to existing schema.

Who uses a data mart (and how)?

Let’s talk
Data marts guide important business decisions at a departmental level. For example, a
marketing team may use data marts to analyze consumer behaviors, while sales staff
could use data marts to compile quarterly sales reports. As these tasks happen within
their respective departments, the teams don't need access to all enterprise data.

Typically, a data mart is created and managed by the specific business department that
intends to use it. The process for designing a data mart usually comprises the following
steps:

1. Document essential requirements to understand the business and technical needs of

the data mart.

2. Identify the data sources your data mart will rely on for information.

3. Determine the data subset, whether it is all information on a topic or specific fields at
a more granular level.

4. Design the logical layout for the data mart by picking a schema that correlates with
the larger data warehouse.

With the groundwork done, you can get the most value from a data mart by using
specialist business intelligence tools, such as Qlik or SiSense. These solutions include a
dashboard and visualizations that make it easy to discern insights from the data, which
ultimately leads to smarter decisions that benefit the company.

Data mart and cloud architecture

While data marts offer businesses the benefits of greater efficiency and flexibility, the
unstoppable growth of data poses a problem for companies that continue to use an on-
premises solution.

As data warehouses move to the cloud, data marts will follow. By consolidating data
resources into a single repository that contains all data marts, businesses can reduce
costs and ensure all departments have unfettered access to data they need in real-time.

Cloud-based platforms make it possible to create, share, and store massive data sets
with ease, paving the way for more efficient and effective data access and analysis. Cloud
systems are built for sustainable business growth, with many modern Software-as-a
Service (SaaS) providers separating data storage from computing to improve scalability
when querying data.

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Related solutions

Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Explore the capabilities of a fully managed, elastic cloud data warehouse built for high-
performance analytics and AI.

Explore Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

InfoSphere Master Data Management

Explore how IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management can empower business and IT
users to collaborate and innovate with trusted master data across the enterprise.

Explore InfoSphere Master Data Management

Resources

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Take the next step
IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is an elastic cloud data warehouse that offers
independent scaling of storage and compute. Smaller data marts can use the Flex
One feature, which is an elastic data warehouse built for high-performance analytics.
This system is deployable on multiple cloud providers, starting at 40 GB of storage.

Explore IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

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