{"id":979,"date":"2025-12-22T22:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/?p=979"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:19:05","slug":"is-the-data-warehouse-centralized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/22\/is-the-data-warehouse-centralized\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Data Warehouse centralized?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-orange-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0b016372316ccfbbd2055aaf286204ce\"><em>By W H Inmon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4704db92076bce59f560be3a78bbb68f\">Lately, people have been claiming that a data warehouse is of necessity centralized in a single location or on a single complex of machines. In practice, many data warehouses are built this way. But does it have to be this way? Are data warehouses essentially centralized structures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a534f9d0f983d2f2e0bd4b82fd682939\">Consider the definition of a data warehouse \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-87e569d7ae84a322fd0f0e1bf362de5d\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A data warehouse is a&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f6549b12bd87a85f090003e1ee15a634\">Subject oriented<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7f48b8d88acfcfa46ddb476a262439d5\">Integrated<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8d5c6b5640312402e8447991666a4d70\">Non-volatile<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-26ba25550779d90dfbbeb28f221d9ffd\">Time variant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ef3901d42c31d5eb5172ac61131c347b\">collection of data in support of management\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1a37f43e7eff4f69f1e2bdfd1d7ee981\">This definition of a data warehouse has been around since the very beginning of data warehousing and is used by practitioners everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-15bdc08abf98bcc5c20591632dcf53bd\">Exactly where in the definition of a data warehouse does it say that a data warehouse has to be centralized to a single platform or a single location?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9cdb6020d4a6b6a24c302a6477000824\">The answer is that there is nothing in the definition of a data warehouse that says it must be centralized. Or decentralized. The definition of a data warehouse says absolutely nothing about the implementation of the data warehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d52ec1095cb6bc1687c61f8bfbf5cb7f\">Historically, data warehouses arose in the day and age of the mainframe computer. In that day and age, most data bases were indeed centralized. It is only natural that early data warehouses built on mainframes were centralized, as were nearly all other data bases that were built then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2a781203b24c06a7aaed1a038529a6f8\">The definition of a data warehouse speaks to the integrity and structure of the data, not the implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ff9af708db2183f425d1f9a979580c38\">One could imagine a data warehouse where sales data resided in Oregon, manufacturing data resides in Ohio, finance data resides in Florida, and administrative data resides in Texas. Collectively, all the data form a data warehouse. But the data is anything but centralized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4fa254983e5e21333b7c87cf4bf71f81\">What matters is that data \u2013 once the data is being used for decision making purposes \u2013 is believable. There better not be two or more versions of the same data anywhere. There better not be a corporate version of the data, a Virginia version of the same data and a Canadian version of the same data. Virginia and Canada are welcome to have their own data, but that same data cannot be found elsewhere in the corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-835fc878bbd2de60dd25e310354ac8ca\">The believability of the data relies on the data being \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ab745ed68b242d9d9521ac4bc19343c2\">Complete<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-66625291341fb7dc425ce3adc380e350\">Accurate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0b3e2530e7b20a014857cc823e9fd278\">Up to the second<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-924c5c6fa18b167c99e81aef2ca7f1ab\">Integrated across the corporation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a914c64f7e35f381beae08e2ba22a020\">Granular, supporting different interpretations of the data<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1d0a33d22bfa8dd618824f0a2c7e7334\">Singular, where data resides in only one place in the corporation&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7b059f4499e917ef987aec221a24b284\">The data in the corporate data warehouse can be implemented either centrally or in a decentralized manner. But wherever the data resides, the data needs to be believable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:29% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"814\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-4.24.04-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-914 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-4.24.04-PM.png 650w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-4.24.04-PM-240x300.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-orange-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ca8c5e7c7f46dd1e73b0a4daf88339ad\"><strong>Notable Works by William H. Inmon, Pioneer in Data Architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-regular-font-size wp-elements-3fff0c882b4a43be1006b77903acafad\">Bill Inmon lives in Denver with his wife and his two Scotty dogs \u2013 Lena and Rollie. It is summer and Lena and Rollie delight in playing in the back yard. Lena has found a path into the tomatoes but she hasn\u2019t shown the path to Rollie yet. It is Lena\u2019s secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-regular-font-size wp-elements-8086afab892ef784e5abf7559f79a8c5\">Bill Inmon wrote the book HEARING THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER and TURNING TEXT INTO GOLD for Technics Publications. Bill\u2019s latest book is MODERNIZING MEDICAL RESEARCH: AI AND MEDICAL RECORDS, Technics Publications.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-25d763e525491eb9ccef253963480e05\" style=\"font-size:26px\"><strong><em>Join Our Data Community<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9bdac29360d2b62aa9e765a3bc163366\">At Data Principles, we believe in making data powerful and accessible. Get monthly insights, practical advice, and company updates delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe and be part of the journey!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-orange-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/lp.constantcontactpages.com\/sl\/XIYDUv9\/DataDecisionsPathways\">Subscribe Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"946\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1087\" style=\"width:450px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM.png 946w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By W H Inmon Lately, people have been claiming that a data warehouse is of necessity centralized in a single location or on a single&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13,25,260],"tags":[117,90,119,116,77,120,118,87,109,106],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-data","category-data-architecture-modeling","category-data-integration","category-hot-topic","tag-analytics-architecture","tag-data-integration","tag-data-strategy","tag-data-warehouse","tag-data-warehousing","tag-decision-support","tag-distributed-data","tag-enterprise-data","tag-modern-data-architecture","tag-trusted-data"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}