Compatibility
WhereScape RED for IBM InfoSphere Warehouse
The IBM® InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse™ is the complete data warehousing solution comprised of pre-tested, scalable and fully-integrated system components of InfoSphere Warehouse, Server and Storage.
InfoSphere Warehouse is WhereScape’s preferred delivery platform. Together with WhereScape RED, InfoSphere Warehouse enables customers to get to value quicker.
WhereScape RED for SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server continues to be the most popular database for WhereScape. Hundreds of SQL Server customers enjoy the productivity, ease of use and cost benefits of the SQL Server and WhereScape combination.
The same WhereScape integrated development environment is used to build SQL Server data warehouses as well as Analysis Services cubes.
The benefits are simple – you only need to learn one development environment, end to end metadata from your source system through to the cube layer (and where supported the client tool as well), integrated workflow and scheduling for the data warehouse and the cubes, automatically maintained lineage information and documentation from source system extract through to the data warehouse and the cubes. And best of all the objects WhereScape RED creates are identical to those you would build manually.
WhereScape RED for Oracle
Oracle was the first database supported by WhereScape, and is still one of the most popular. As you would expect, WhereScape exploits the power of the Oracle RDBMS and provides support for key Oracle data warehouse features.
Why do Oracle customers choose WhereScape RED? The speed with which they can then build and rebuild data warehouses and the ease with which they can maintain them.
WhereScape RED for Teradata
Teradata is a fast platform for running your data warehouse, why shouldn't it be a fast platform to build it on too? ETL tools are great at data movement, but they are not famous for their speed of building or their ability to support changes in user requirements. That’s where WhereScape RED comes in. WhereScape RED is an Integrated Development Environment for building data warehouses. It builds Teradata objects (tables, indexes, join indexes etc) generates set based procedures and scripts identical to those built by hand by experienced Teradata professionals. It creates meta data automatically (and naturally stores it in the Teradata database where you can see it), and uses the meta data to enable you to quickly understand what is there and to make changes to it.
If development is taking too long, if keeping up with enhance requests is burdensome WhereScape RED can help.
For further information about WhereScape RED for Teradata read the Teradata Information Sheet.
WhereScape RED and ETL Tools
Is WhereScape RED an ETL tool?
There is an overlap between WhereScape RED and traditional ETL tools. Sure WhereScape RED builds ELT processes in the database for many hundreds of our customers – but WhereScape is also used to complement traditional ETL tools as well.
Using WhereScape RED for ETL
WhereScape RED can be used for the ETL process (we use the database as the ETL engine which is often called E-L-T rather than E-T-L), but it is not a traditional ETL tool. Search the web for ETL tool evaluation criteria and you will see any number of mandatory features. Here at WhereScape the only criteria we care about are how fast our customers can build, rebuild and manage a successful and powerful data warehouse.
WhereScape RED uses the power of the database for all the transformation and reformatting of data – with the right database and hardware this is can be used to process tens of billions of row tables. Unlike a traditional ETL tool, WhereScape RED uses the database’s native loaders to load the data. WhereScape RED stages new data in the database and generates native database procedural code to transform the data into high-quality model, fact and dimension tables, aggregates, views and cubes.
Using WhereScape RED with a traditional ETL tool
Already have a traditional ETL tool? No problem. You can use a traditional ETL tool to populate WhereScape RED tables (load, stage even fact, dimension or model) and then plug in WhereScape RED for what it is really good at – building the data warehouse fast. WhereScape will create higher level objects within the database – aggregates, summaries, views, joins and even cubes. Data manipulation is done using native database procedural code, and the objects created (tables, views, indexes etc) are all native database structures. We have never seen a data warehouse that doesn’t use the database to extend its usefulness. Modern relational databases have a lot of power - WhereScape RED provides the ideal platform to exploit this.
WhereScape RED for MicroStrategy
WhereScape RED builds:
- snowflake schemas
- star schemas
- normalized models
- aggregates
- views
- MicroStrategy projects
The benefits are simple and compelling:
- WhereScape RED makes your budgets go further. Data warehouse enhancement and development costs are reduced, meaning that more money is available for reporting.
- WhereScape RED accelerates project delivery. New analysis areas can be built faster, and Live Prototypes™, using real data and visible in MicroStrategy, can be built in hours or days.
- WhereScape RED makes your users advocates, not critics. Live Prototyping™ means business users can see what their reports will look like, with real data, sooner than ever before. This means that changes can be made earlier in the process and the final solution more targeted.
WhereScape RED generates database procedural code, load scripts, and standard database tables and indexes - identical to code, scripts and tables that are created by experienced data warehouse professionals, and all available to be enhanced or replaced.
By storing metadata about the objects in the WhereScape RED Repository™ (stored in the data warehouse database) WhereScape RED can also be used to automatically generate documentation and WhereScape RED’s data warehouse scheduler can be utilized simplifying data warehouse operations.
The result? Less time spent building the data warehouse, more time spent building MicroStrategy reports and dashboards.
For further information about WhereScape RED for MicroStrategy download the MicroStrategy Information Sheet.
WhereScape RED and Microsoft Analysis Services
Microsoft Analysis Services are a powerful way to display multidimensional data. Many WhereScape RED customers use Analysis Services as part of their data warehouse solution, even some that do not have Microsoft SQL Server as their primary database.
With WhereScape RED you can design and build Analysis Services cubes using the same drag and drop interface that built the rest of your data warehouse. Metadata is stored about them so they bare included in the generated documentation and they can be scheduled and managed through WhereScape RED.
The benefits are simple – no need to learn another tool, end to end metadata from your source system through to the cube layer (and, where supported, the client tool as well), integrated workflow and scheduling for the data warehouse and the cubes, automatically maintained lineage information and documentation from source system extract through to the data warehouse and the cubes. And best of all the cubes WhereScape RED creates are identical to those you would build manually.
WhereScape RED and Business Intelligence Tools
Every day it seems there are new BI tools being released. We have our favorites –the major players such as MicroStrategy, Cognos and Business Objects of course as well as some of the leading cube viewing products such as Strategy Companion.
Regardless of the tool used, your BI implementation is only as good as the data behind it. Life for the BI tool developer is much easier if the data warehouse is well designed and well implemented. With WhereScape RED, the data warehouse is developed quickly and is easy to change – two things we have yet to hear a BI developer complain about.
WhereScape RED makes the tasks of the BI developer easy, which reduces cost and improves the quality of your BI front end.