Modern businesses are leveraging data analytics to make better business decisions, they need to be able to store and query huge amounts of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. Cloud data warehouses are the solution.
When selecting a cloud-based data warehouse, there are numerous factors to consider, such as performance, scalability, data integration security, compliance and cost. These aspects can help you select a data warehouse that meets your business needs. Compare them to the expected workflows and scenarios.
The first step is to determine the amount of data your business plans to integrate each month and assess if there are any seasonal patterns or spikes in data usage. This will help you figure out the expected usage and also determine the appropriate amount of computing and storage your company requires. It’s also important to think about whether you need real-time data analytics that will increase the costs of your warehouse.
Think about how much engineering resources your team is willing to commit to the start-up and ongoing maintenance. If you choose a fully-managed DWaaS the vendor will assume a majority of these responsibility. However, this could restrict your control and may not be a good choice for teams with limited resources.
Some companies are opting for an approach called a hybrid data warehouse that combines the reliability and control of a traditional relational database with the flexibility and machine learning capabilities of the data lake. Databricks is a popular option. The solution is built with open source technology, and it offers the added benefit of being more accessible to non-technical users.
