MODULE-3

BI
TECHNICAL
ARCHITECTURE
 BI TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE
• Introducing the Technical Architecture:

• Technical Architecture overview

• Back room Architecture

• Presentation Server Architecture

• Front room Architecture

 Introducing the Technical Architecture
• A BI architecture articulates the technology
standards and data management and analytics
practices that support an organization’s BI efforts,
as well as the specific platforms and tools that will
be deployed.
• It provides a blueprint for how an organization will
go about its BI initiatives.
• Why is BI architecture important?
Because without it, businesses and
enterprises risk making costly mistakes as they try
to utilize their data better.
 Introducing the Technical Architecture
• With a well-designed BI architecture in place,
however, organizations can avoid these pitfalls
and set themselves up for success.

• So what goes into a BI architecture?

There are three main elements to
consider in a healthy business intelligence
architecture:
 Introducing the Technical Architecture
• Data management: 
This is all about how data is collected, stored
and accessed. It’s critical to have a robust 
data management system in place in order to
support BI initiatives.
• Analytics: 
This is where businesses and enterprises 
turn their data into insights. By using data analytics,
businesses can gain a better understanding of their
customers, their operations, and the trends that
are shaping their industry.
 Introducing the Technical Architecture
• Technology: 
This is the software and hardware that
organizations use to support their BI efforts. This
can include everything from data warehouses and
ETL tools to reporting and visualization platforms.
 
A good understanding of what goes into a BI
architecture and why it is so important. Let’s get
started.
 Introducing the Technical Architecture
• What is business intelligence architecture
composed of?

• What are the benefits of having a business

intelligence architecture?

• Tips for creating a strong business intelligence

architecture.
 What is business intelligence architecture composed of?

• A business intelligence architecture is made up of

three main elements:
Data management,
Analytics,
Technology.

• A strong foundation of each of these elements is

essential for a successful BI initiative.
Data management
• As its name suggests, data management is all
about how data is collected, stored, and accessed.
• It’s critical to have a robust data management
system in place in order to support BI initiatives.
• This system should be designed to meet the
specific needs of the organization.
• Data management occurs at all levels of the
organization, from the data collected by sensors
and devices to the data entered into databases by
employees
 Data management
• Data also flows in from external sources, such as
social media, market research firms, and
government agencies.
• The goal of data management is to ensure that
this data is accurate, up-to-date, and 
easily accessible by those who need it.
• To achieve this, data management systems must
be designed for scalability, security, and
performance.
 Data management
Example :
in action is a company that uses sensors to
collect data about its manufacturing process.
• This data is then stored in a database and made
available to employees who can use it to improve
the efficiency of the manufacturing process.
• By collecting and storing data about its
manufacturing process, the company has created
a valuable asset that can be used to improve its
business.
 Data management
• However, simply collecting and storing data is not
enough.

• The data must be utilized and analyzed for it to

have any value.
Analytics:
• Data analytics is the process of turning data into
insights.

• By using data analytics, businesses can gain a

better understanding of their customers, their
operations, and the trends that are shaping their
industry.

• There are many different types of data analytics,

but they all have one goal: to help businesses
make better decisions.
 Analytics
• Some common types of data analytics are descriptive
analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.
A. Descriptive analytics: Descriptive analytics answers
the question “What happened?” It is used to understand
past events and trends.
B. Predictive analytics: Predictive analytics answers the
question “What will happen?” It is used to forecast
future events and trends.
C. Prescriptive analytics: Prescriptive analytics answers
the question “What should we do?” It is used to
recommend actions that will improve business
performance.
 Analytics
• Using analytics on your data allows you to see
things that you would not be able to see just by
looking at the raw data.

• For example:
you might notice that your sales are
increasing on days when the weather is warm.

• This insight can then be used to make decisions,

such as investing in more inventory on days when
the weather is warm.
 Analytics
• Imagine that you are the owner of an
eCommerce store that operates in a global
market.

• Business intelligence analytics requires

you to understand not only your own
data but also the data of your competitors in
order to make informed decisions about where
to focus your efforts.
 Technology

• In business intelligence architecture, you know you

need to collect data and then act on that data.
So how do you do that?
• Technology is critical for business intelligence
because it enables you to collect, store, and
analyze data. The right technology will also allow
you to share your insights with others in your
organization.
• Some of the most important technologies for
business intelligence are data warehouses, data
lakes, and business intelligence tools.
 Data warehouses

• A data warehouse is a database that is designed

for storing and analyzing data.
• Data warehouses are used by businesses to
store their data in a single location so that it can
be easily accessed and analyzed.
Data lakes:
• A data lake is a repository of data that can be
used for storage and analysis.
• Data lakes are often used by businesses to store
data that is not yet structured or ready for
analysis.
Conceptual Layers of Data Warehousing with BI
 (I) Persistent Staging Area
• The data extracted from the Source Systems first
enters into the Persistent Staging Area.
• The data at this layer is the raw data which is in
unchanged form.
• The data is consolidated and cleansed only in the next
layers.
• Staging area is a temporary table that holds the data
and connects to work area or fact tables.
• In the absence of staging area the data load will have to
go from the OLTP system to the OLAP system directly
which hamper the performance of OLTP system.
 (II) Data Warehouse Layer (DWH Layer)

• Data from the Persistent Staging Area is loaded

into the DataWareHouse Layer.
• It has Corporate information repository.
• Data in this layer is stored for a longer period.
i.e,Entire History data (for example,
last 5 years data) is stored here in this layer.
• No aggregation of reporting-relevant data; the
granularity of the data stored in this layer is at
line-item (detailed) level.
 (III) Operational Data Store Layer

• Data is loaded to an Operational Data Store Layer very

frequently on a continuous basis from the source systems.
• Hence the data in this layer contains all the changes to the
data that was done throughout the day.
• Data from Operational data store later can be loaded to the
Datawarehouse layer at particular timings (say end of the
day) to update the date in Datawarehouse Layer.
• This Operational Data Store Layer can also be used in case of
any emergencies when the data in the datawarehouse and
datamart layers are lost.
• In such situations data can be loaded from the Operational
Data Store layer to the Data Warehouse Layer and Data Mart
Layer.
• ODS is not based on star schema model but they are in a flat
files format.
 (IV) Architected Data Mart Layer

• Architected Data Mart Layer also known as Infocube.

• It is designed to store summarized and aggregated
Data for long period of time.
• Data from the Data Warehouse Layer is loaded into
the Architected Data Mart Layer.
• It is used in Analysis and reporting. The data is at a
high level relevant for creating reports displaying
these data.
• Data manipulation with business logic is done at this
layer. It consists of a central fact table(Key Figures)
surrounded by several dimension tables, it is used to
support BW queries
Key Components of SAP BI System
 Key Components of SAP BI System:
• Data warehousing – This is mainly to Extract, Transform and Load
data from Source systems.
• BI platform – The BI platform layer contains BI services to support
complex analysis tasks and functions.
• It contains the Analytic Engine, which processes the data
requested through BEx analysis navigations.
• Its interface allows entry and manipulation of data as part of BI
Integrated Planning.
• It also has special analysis tools such as the Analysis Process
Designer (APD) and the Data Mining which provide analysts at
your company with the tools to merge, mine, pre-process, store,
and analyse data.
• BI Suite – These tools helps in creating reports for analysis
purpose.It contains the Business Explorer (BEx) which provides
flexible reporting and analysis tools.
 Key Components of SAP BI System:
• The following areas in the Business Explorer can
be used for Data Analyses:
• BEx Analyser (Microsoft Excel-based analysis tool
with pivot-table-like features)
• BEx Web Analyser (Web-based analysis tool with
pivot-table-like features)
• BEx Web Application Designer (customer-
defined and SAP BI Content provided)
• BEx Report Designer (highly formatted Web
output)
 SAP BI/BW Architecture:
• BI has three tier architecture:

• Database Server: 
Where data is physically stored.( ODS, PSA, Infocube
and metadata repository).

• Application Server: 
The application server is based on the OLAP processor.
It is used to retrieve data stored in the database server.

• Presentation Server: 
Manages reporting and data access.
 SAP BI/BW Architecture
• Data is extracted from the Source Systems.
• Data is staged at the Persistent Storage Area(PSA).
This holds Source like data.
• Data is cleansed, loaded and stored in Data Store
Object.
• Data is viewed at multiple dimensions in the Infocube.
• Data is available by the OLAP processor to the
Business Explorer to display data as per Analysis
requirements of the Business.
• Data can be made available to SAP/Non-SAP, Data
Marts by the Open Hub Service.( InfoSpoke).
 Kimball Technical DW/BI System Architecture

• The Kimball technical system architecture

separates the data and processes comprising the
DW/BI system into the backroom extract,
transformation and load (ETL) environment and
the front room presentation area.
Kimball Technical DW/BI System
Architecture
Back and Front Room BI
 Kimball Technical DW/BI System
Architecture
• The Kimball technical system architecture focuses on the
following components:

(1) Backroom ETL system

(2) Front room presentation area

(3) Front room BI applications

(4) Metadata
 Backroom ETL system:
The Kimball Group has identified 34
subsystems in the ETL process flow, grouped into four
major operations: 
 Extracting the data from the sources

 Performing cleansing and
conforming transformations

 Delivering it to the presentation server

 Managing the ETL process and Back room

environment.
 Front room presentation area:
• The Kimball Architecture presumes the data
utilized by the BI applications is
Dimensionally-structured,
Organized by business process,
Atomically-grained (complemented by
aggregated summaries for performance tuning),
and tied together by the enterprise data
warehouse bus architecture.
Front room BI applications:
• The front room is the public face of the DW/BI
system; it’s what business users see and work
with day-to-day.

• There’s a broad range of BI applications supported

by BI management services in the front room,
including ad hoc queries, standardized reports,
dashboards and scorecards, and more powerful
analytic or mining/modeling applications.
 Metadata:
•  Metadata is all the information that defines and
describes the structures, operations, and
contents of the DW/BI system. 
• Technical metadata defines the objects and
processes which comprise the DW/BI system. 
• Business metadata describes the data warehouse
contents in user terms, including what data is
available, where did it come from, what does it
mean, and how does it relate to other data.
• Finally, process metadata describes the
warehouse’s operational results.
 Kimball Technical DW/BI System Architecture
• Some organizations adopt an alternative data
warehouse architecture that includes a third
normal form (3NF) relational data warehouse.

• This hub-and-spoke architecture, often called the

Corporate Information Factory (CIF), includes a
data acquisition ETL process to gather, clean and
integrate data similar to the backroom ETL system
described above.
Kimball Technical DW/BI System Architecture
• With the CIF, atomic data is loaded into third
normal form structures, typically called the
Enterprise data warehouse (EDW).

• Another ETL data delivery process then populates

downstream reporting and analytic environments
supporting the business users; these
environments are typically structured
dimensionally.
 Kimball Technical DW/BI System
Architecture
• A modification to the Kimball Architecture,
Sometimes referred to as a hybrid
architecture.

Leverages an existing 3NF data warehouse as

the source of clean.

Integrated data to feed the front room

presentation area described above.