Data Marts

What is a Data Mart?

A data mart is a subset of a data warehouse that is designed to serve the specific needs of a particular group or department within an organization. It is a smaller, more focused repository of data that is extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) from the organization's data warehouse or other data sources.

Data marts are typically designed to support the analytical and reporting requirements of a particular business unit, such as marketing, sales, finance, or human resources. They are organized in a way that makes it easier for the users within that department to access and analyze the data relevant to their specific needs.

There are two main types of data marts:

1. Dependent Data Mart: A dependent data mart is built by extracting a subset of data from the enterprise data warehouse. It relies on the data warehouse for its data source and is typically used to improve query performance for a specific business unit. In this case, the data mart is dependent on the data warehouse for data updates and maintenance.

2. Independent Data Mart: An independent data mart is built separately from the data warehouse. It may have its own data sources and ETL processes. This type of data mart is used when a specific department wants more control over their data and reporting, and it may not rely on the data warehouse for data updates.

Data marts help organizations to better meet the specific reporting and analysis needs of individual departments or teams without overloading the central data warehouse with specialized requests. They can improve performance, as they store and organize data that is most relevant to the business unit they serve. Data marts also allow business users to access data more easily, as the data is structured and organized according to their specific requirements.