4-26 The idea of data warehousing dates back to the 1980s. Today, data warehousing is a global market worth billions of dollars. What is the relationship between operational databases and data warehouses? Why are data warehouses created, and how do organizations use them? What types of decisions do data warehouses support? Have you ever searched a data warehouse? Visit FedStats. gov and search "MapStats" to see what facts are available for your home state. Prepare a list of five interesting facts about your home state to share with your classmates.
4-24 Target marketing uses databases and data warehouses to identify potential customers that a business wants to reach based on factors that describe a specific group of people. For example, target markets may be identified by geographic area, by age group, by gender, or by all three factors at one time. One of the leading providers of business and consumer information is infoUSA.com. Visit their website at www.infousa.com to learn how they compile data from multiple sources. How does their process compare to extract, transform, and load (ETL)? Prepare a brief summary of your findings that describes the infoUSA five-step process of building a quality database.