Evaluating data warehouse toolkits

Historically, building a data warehouse has been a risky proposition. According to the Gartner Group and similar sources, the failure rate for data warehouse projects runs as high as 60 percent. The dilemma facing businesses today is this: although implementing an enterprise-wide database is risky, an organization that does so gains a significant business advantage over competitors who do not have data warehouse capability or who continue to rely on localized, group-specific data marts. The author discusses the evaluation of data warehouse toolkits and considers critical toolkit components.