The Changing Landscape of Data Warehousing

by Curt Hall

In many cases, vendors are acquiring other companies to add new technology to their product line. Most of the vendors are trying to develop more complete data warehouse suites. This is mirroring a trend in the industry -- they're all moving away from offering point solutions. Rather than just offering a data extraction and transformation tool, some vendors have evolved their products into more complete analytical applications that not only provide the ability to extract, load, and transform data, but also provide integrated reporting and analysis capabilities targeted at specific applications -- for example, a data mart package for CRM [customer relationship management]. Some vendors have taken this "packaged application" approach one step further by offering data warehouse products targeted at specific industries, such as a CRM application for healthcare.