Comments on: A Future Oracle OBIEE Architecture

By: Mark Rittman

Mark Rittman — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:28:33 +0000

Hi Grahame,

Good to hear from you. I think in terms of an architecture, it’s pretty vendor neutral at least in terms of data sources, presentation tools and so on – OBIEE (or at least the BI Server) is the key enabler through the single logical metadata model, it’s heterogeneous connectivity (to both Oracle, MS AS etc) and it’s ability to provide data for a range of reporting tools, including Reporting Services.

Certainly you could use any ETL tool to provide the data warehouse layer – SSIS would be as good as any – with Proclarity performing the OLAP query tool role that Hyperion Web Analysis would provide in an all-Oracle stack.

You should drop me an email offline if you get a chance – mark.rittman@rittmanmead.com – I’d be interested to hear about how you use your hybrid reporting technology and how it might fit in this sort of architecture.

regards, Mark

By: Grahame Crispin

Grahame Crispin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:40:37 +0000

Mark, ITV currently have a hybrid Oracle / Microsoft BI stack supporting silo’d BI and will do so for the forseeable future; we want to move to a common ITV-wide BI Platform that embraces what we’ve currently got but enables component interoperability wherever we can. Do you have any observations about how “A Future Oracle OBIEE Archiecture” can encompass other BI suppliers’ technologies – specifically Microsoft SSIS MS Reporting Services and Proclarity ?

By: Peter Scott

Peter Scott — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:47:11 +0000

As Mark says, performance is an issue; but DWs also address the issue of data quality (or at least well designed data warehouses do!) when you have multiple source systems and need to conform dimensions at query time to cope with differing keys (or even descriptions) between sources you have an uphill struggle – the data warehouse is saleable to the business on grounds of better quality of information

By: Mark Rittman

Mark Rittman — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:21:09 +0000

Hi Carl,

Well, I guess it’s a cost/benefit thing – if they can get by without using a DW, well then they should do so, but I suspect performance will be an issue running against source data, and there are probably some areas of data integration that won’t be possible until a proper ETL process is in place, so the client may have to put up with lots of separate logical models rather than one single one. Yours is a good point though, especially if the main benefits of going down the DW route are mainly IT ones that the business does not perceive.

By: Carl Petersen

Carl Petersen — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:28:23 +0000

In your article, you write: “These tables will go on to form the kernel of the data warehouse that will be built in the next phase. Using this initial data services, business logic and presentation layers, the business can provide some initial reports, gain some quick wins and also provide a pilot platform that helps the process of gathering more detailed requirements.”

My question is, what is the likelihood that the business will give you time to go back and properly integrate the data into the data warehouse? The business has what they want, and now that they got something quickly, I would expect that they would want their next request filled just as quickly! Like the old saying says, “Pay now or pay later, their is no free lunch!”

By: Rittman Mead Consulting » Blog Archive » Migrating OBIEE Logical Models to use a Data Warehouse : Part 2

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:08:52 +0000

[...] yesterdays posting, I took a look at some of the practicalities behind my recent article on OBIEE “next-generation” architectures. The idea behind this architecture is that you can use the connectivity features of OBIEE to [...]

By: Rittman Mead Consulting » Blog Archive » Re-Wiring OBIEE Logical Models To Use A Data Warehouse : Part 1

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:47:21 +0000

[...] couple of weeks ago I posted an article about a next-generation Oracle BI architecture, where I advocated building a first cut OBIEE system against your operational applications, [...]

By: Chandra

Chandra — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:13:40 +0000

Great article as always!
What is the difference between OBI Dashboard and Hyperion Dashboards, will there be a common Dashboarding solution as part of OBI EE+

By: Rittman Mead Consulting » Delving in to ODI’s Web Services Support

Rittman Mead Consulting » Delving in to ODI’s Web Services Support — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:07:47 +0000

[...] Comments Stewart Bryson on A Future Oracle OBIEE ArchitectureMark Rittman on A Future Oracle OBIEE ArchitectureStewart Bryson on A Future Oracle OBIEE [...]

By: Stewart Bryson

Stewart Bryson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:13:24 +0000

I don’t think renaming “data services layer” is necessary. After re-reading, I think the mistake was mine. I was assuming a service bus that served as the center of the hub through which everything flowed. However, I think you make clear that the ETL processes do not have to run on the SOA bus to be part of the data services layer.

I think I was also caught up (especially in your first posting) with the idea that the initial metadata mapping designed in phase 1 would also include everything logically needed to move to phase 2. It now seems like the movement to phase 2 would include the kind of work we always do when building a data warehouse. It looks like the important message here is that the switch would be an invisible one (except for increased performance) from the user perspective.