Page 241 - Data Architecture

Chapter 6.3: Introduction to Data Vault Architecture

What Are the Objectives of the Data Vault 2.0

Architecture?

There are several objectives of the Data Vault 2.0 architecture; they are listed below:

1. (a) To seamlessly connect existing relational database systems with new NoSQL platforms
2. (b) To engage business users and provide space for managed self-service BI (write back and direct
control over data in the data warehouse)
3. (c) To provide for real-time arrival direct to the data warehouse environment without forcing a landing
in the staging tables
4. (d) To enable agile development by decoupling the always changing business rules from the static data
alignment rules

The architecture plays a key role in separation of responsibilities, isolating data
acquisition from data provisioning. By separating responsibilities and pushing ever-
changing business rules closer to the business user, agility by the implementation teams is
enabled.

What Is the Objective of the Data Vault 2.0 Model?

The objective is to provide seamless platform integration or at least make it available and
possible via design. The design that is leveraged includes several basic elements. The first
is found in the Data Vault 2.0 model, the use of the hash keys (to replace the surrogates
as primary keys). The hash keys allow the implementation of parallel decoupled loading
practices across heterogeneous platforms. The hash keys and loading process are
introduced and discussed in the implementation and modeling sections of this chapter.

That said, the hash keys provide the connection between the two environments, allowing
cross system joins to occur where possible. Performance of the cross system join will
vary depending on the NoSQL platform chosen and the hardware infrastructure

underneath. Fig. 6.3.2 shows an example data model that provides a logical foreign key
between relational DBMS and Hadoop-stored satellite.

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