How To Build A Data Warehouse In The Cloud

As much as people like to think that cloud computing is somehow the tech of the future, it’s not. It is very much alive and present on most of what we do today. You have an iCloud, or Google drive, to which your data is uploaded in case of theft or loss of phone. This is just the tip of the ice berg, as cloud computing has become an ever expanding giant today that every organization wants to incorporate for data storage and workload deployment.

Individuals pursuing a cloud certification should realize by now that most companies already have their significant data on the cloud, which is why logic dictates that the data is computed in the cloud as well. Typically, the data is distributed in different cloud sources, so taking it and creating a data warehouse to facilitate your organization is the natural step to take.

When creating a data warehouse, you will be working with a defined set of your system resources. One of the most common platforms for creating a data warehouse is Microsoft Azure. This is also one of the main SQL database platforms you will learn during your cloud architect training. In this article, the main focus will be on creating a data warehouse for your needs in Azure.

Once you have Azure on your system, a database will be created in the Azure resource group along with the Azure SQL logical server.

You can follow the steps listed below to successfully create an SQL data warehouse:

1. When you will open the Azure portal, you will see the option of create a resource in the upper left corner of the window. Click that to get started.
2. The new window will show you different options to select from the Azure Marketplace, you will select the databases option and on the right side window after selecting databases, you will click on SQL Data Warehouse.
3. After selecting SQL Data Warehouse, you will be provided with a form that must be filled with the basic information about the SQL Data Warehouse. The details include:

• A Database name which should be short and must be able3 to identify the type and purpose of the database you are creating e.g. mySampleDataWarehouse.
• Your subscription.
• Resource Group which like the database name should have a short and purposeful name which allows you to recognize it in code easily.
• You will be directed to choose the source which specifies to load the kind of database you require.
• Finally a sample that would specify Azure to load a certain sample for your database.

1. The next step is to create a server for your SQL database. When you click server, you will be given a form to fill just as you did for the new database. The form includes:

• First you will be prompted to fill out a server name, which you have to create so it is globally unique. Before naming your server, it is better to research on server naming techniques to avoid confusion later.
• Next you will be required to fill in the server admin login name, this can be anything that you want to put in, just make sure you remember it.
• As usual protocol follows, every admin username must have a password.
• You must also define a region for your server. You can choose from a list of Azure servers available to all users.

1. Press select.
2. Next click on performance tier to set the performance configuration for your data warehouse.
3. For now let’s suppose we are selecting the Optimized for Elasticity tier. The slider will be set to DW400 according to the default settings, you can play around with it to understand how it works.
4. Press Apply.
5. Since the SQL Database form has been completed, you can click Create to start database provisioning. Provisioning will take some time.
6. To monitor your deployment process, click on notifications on the toolbar.

With most of the world shifting their data on cloud based platforms, the demand for individuals who have completed cloud certification is increasing in the market, and as you can see creating the Database Warehouse is not too difficult, however expanding maintaining and querying your data warehouse will required some more training. With countless good online sources offering cloud training, you too can become a top data handler and navigate your way through Azure or AWS with relative ease.