Database Design Paper

Database Design Paper DBM 380 June 20, 2011 Stephen Welborn

Database Design Paper

Database Design Paper

An analytical database is a read-only system that stores historical data on business metrics such as sales performance and inventory levels. Business analysts, corporate executives and other workers can run queries and reports against an analytic database. The information is updated on a regular basis to incorporate recent transaction data from an organizations operational systems. An analytic database is specifically designed to support business intelligence (BI) and analytic applications, typically as part of a data warehouse or data mart. This differentiates it from an operational, transactional or OLTP database, which is used for transaction processing order entry and other runs the business applications. Databases that do transaction processing also can be used to support data warehouses and BI applications, but analytic database vendors claim that their products offer performance and scalability advantages over conventional relational database software( Search Data Management, 2010). Teradata Corporation is a global leader in enterprise data warehousing, including enterprise analytic technologies and services (Edgar, 2010). According to Wikipedia (2010), the organizational database is an essential component in a management information system. Businesses use these databases to improve productivity and help with the automation of subsystems. This paper will be outlining the reasons Flextronics, a leading Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider, chose Teradata database to help improve data

Database Design Paper

management. It will go on to detail the advantages and disadvantages the database has in the organization and will close with final thoughts on how the business flow has improved. New technology in businesses has been increasing at an exponential rate over the past decade. With the ongoing demand to increase profit margins and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving market, Cooperation starting to look at databases to help maximize productivity and data integrity. At Flextronics, many components that make up Flextronics information system have undergone tremendous technology upgrades in the last three years. With upgrades to hardware being the main focus, attention to data has lagged far behind the development of machines and programming technologies that been implemented at Flextronics. To utilize the new hardware implementation, Flextronics has called on the help of Teradata databases to help with data organization and representation. Teradata was chosen by Flextronics because of the latency in accessing data because of manual data entry over the last five years leading to the purchase of Solectron, one of its competitors in the manufacturing business. One of the advantages of including a database in the organization has been faster decision making. By combining the multiple data stores into a consistent view data, Flextronics has also eliminated some of the expenses of paying for manual administration of multiple databases thought their business. Teradata has allowed Flextronics organization to view all parts of our business through one centralized source that has improved flexibility. Teradata is also very scalable over a large database. With rapid growth in customer base, Teradata has helped Flextronics organize customer records so quick well-informed decisions can be made. Another advantage of implementing Teradata database has been the improved capability to respond to events as they occur (Greg Lettau, personal communication, August 26, 2008). In the order management side of the business, Order Management Associates OMAs, rely on Teradatas Active Enterprise

Database Design Paper

solutions for access data so they can quickly up-sell customers while they are on the phone during live business. With the implementation of Teradatas Database, disadvantages were also a concern. Possessing its own hardware and software, finding the right hardware to work with the vast amount of software Teradata had to offer was a very easy task. Because of the proprietary nature of their product, using that software across multiple platforms is almost nonexistent. Unlike Oracle, Teradata has its own storage arrays that can be purchased to help manage the databases Flextronics has put in place. This proprietary solution brings expensive hardware and minimal intergradations with other platforms Flextronics is using in the organization. According to Search SQL Server (2011), A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a program that lets you create, update, and administer a relational database. Most commercial RDBMS's use the Structured Query Language (SQL) to access the database, although SQL was invented after the development of the relational model and is not necessary for its use. The leading RDBMS products are Oracle, IBM's DB2 and Microsoft's SQL Server. Despite repeated challenges by competing technologies as well as the claim by some experts that no current RDBMS has fully implemented relational principles, the majority of new corporate databases are still being created and managed with an RDBMS ( RDBMS, para. 1-3). In conclusion, Teradata is a very reliable database and has improved Flextronicss shopto-floor inventory control. Possessing faster accesses to data and sharper accuracies has proven to strengthen the business goal of customer satisfaction and on time demand. The accuracy of the

Database Design Paper

Teradata database has had an offset affect the initial cost of the product and over time has paid for its self in return.

Database Design Paper

References Wikipedia. (2010). Database. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database Edgar . (2010). EDGAR ONLINE. Retrieved from http://sec.edgar-online.com/teradata-corp-de/10-k-annual-eport/2008/03/03/Section3.aspx Search Data Management. (2010). Analytic Database. Retrieved from http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/analytic-database Search SQL Server. (2011). Relational Database Management System . Retrieved from http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/relational-database-management-system