Using SPD Server with Data Warehousing

SPD Server offers data warehouse users an excellent facility to store data. Using component files and partitioning, SPD Server alleviates large table constraints such as device or directory size limits. SPD Server can perform storage services on a reliable and relatively inexpensive machine.

Besides providing efficient, economical storage, SPD Server can deliver the enhanced processing capabilities users need to manage and query data in a warehouse. SMP processing provides the machine's horsepower to parallel-process huge tables. SPD Server offers multiple access, domain protection, and table locking. These features enable data warehouse users to secure and access their shared SPD Server.

Within a data warehouse, there are several data stores (repositories for data). Three stores are of interest in the previous figure: detail tables, summary tables, and data marts. Organizations often store transactions that are up to 90 days old in a detail table, transactions that are up to a year old in a summary table, and additional data snapshots in data marts. These three data stores share a common requirement—they must maintain hundreds of gigabytes of data.

To perform queries, data warehouse users can use SAS with SAS syntax or PROC SQL syntax. Alternatively, SPD Server supports the use of other vendor applications that allow SQL pass-through and that comply with other connection standards that are not SAS. In brief, SPD Server can contribute significantly to the objectives for a data warehouse: to deliver low-cost, relevant, machine-independent, and timely information to users throughout the organization.