What is the main difference between Inmon and Kimball philosophies of Data Warehousing?

Data Science, AI and ML
#1

Both differ in the concept of building the Data Warehouse.

  • Kimball views Data Warehousing as a constituency of data marts. Data marts are focused on delivering business objectives for departments in an organization, and the Data Warehouse is a conformed dimension of the data marts. Hence, a unified view of the enterprise can be obtained from the dimension modeling on a local departmental level.
  • Inmon explains in creating a Data Warehouse on a subject-by-subject area basis. Hence, the development of the Data Warehouse can start with data from the online store. Other subject areas can be added to the Data Warehouse as their needs arise. Point-of-sale (POS) data can be added later if management decides that it is necessary.
  • Hence, the process will be as follows:
    Kimball > First Data Marts > Combined Ways > Data Warehouse
    Inmon > First Data Warehouse > Data marts