Proposal of a New Data Warehouse Architecture Reference Model

A common taxonomy of data warehouse architectures comprises five basic approaches: Centralized, Independent Data Mart, Federated, Hub-and-Spoke and Data Mart Bus. However, for many real world cases, an applied data warehouse architecture can be their combination. In this paper we propose a Data Warehouse Architecture Reference Model (DWARM), which unifies known architectural styles and provides options for adaptation to fit particular purposes of a developed data warehouse system. The model comprises 11 layers grouping containers (data stores, sources and consumers), as well as processes, covering typical functional groups: ETL, data storage, data integration and delivery. Actual data warehouse architecture can be obtained by tailoring (removing unnecessary components) and instantiating (creating required layers and components of a given type).