Data Warehousing and Data Mining

Introduction

Modern researchers in various fields are confronted by an unprecedented wealth and complexity of data. However, the results available to these researchers through traditional data analysis techniques provide only limited solutions to complex situations. The approach to the huge demand for the analysis and interpretation of these complex data is managed under the name of data mining, or knowledge discovery. Data mining is defined as the process of extracting useful information from large data sets through the use of any relevant data analysis techniques developed to help people make better decisions. These data mining techniques themselves are defined and categorized according to their underlying statistical theories and computing algorithms. This entry discusses these various data mining methods and their applications (Chapelle, 2006).

Data Mining

Data-mining refers to the process of extracting useful information from pre-existing data through a variety of methods. In many cases it addresses, but is not limited to, analyses of numerical data. Data-mining has developed into various specialized fields. Text data-mining, or text mining, focuses on deriving effective intelligence from a body (corpus) of text. The rise of large-scale archival text reservoirs, with good electronic access, makes this process feasible. Several disciplines contribute to text mining. Especially notable are two complementary approaches—artificial intelligence and statistical analysis—to glean information from unstructured texts. Computational linguistics combines these approaches to gain knowledge about text structure and content (Duda, 2001). These tools can be used for purposes such as machine translation (e.g., to get an approximation of foreign language content to decide if you want to know more).

Advantages of using Data warehousing

According to many company researches, there are large numbers of advantages for data warehousing. All of these advantages are described from the perspective of large companies. The biggest advantage that the organization receives from data warehousing is that they are able to analyze the data in order to identify various historical patterns and connections that will help the management of the company in making important business decision. The users of the data warehouse are able to get access to a large pool of data which can help them in analyzing various business decisions and also help them in designing competitive business strategies. The information available to the users of the data warehouse can also result in large profit for the organization. The data gathered through data warehouse shows the consistency and reliability of the information being extracted (Mitchell, 1997).

One of the strongest features of data warehouse is that data from various locations are combined and ordered on a single platform. There are various reasons which show this strong importance of data warehouse. During the process of data warehouse, when data is gathered from multiple sources and are placed in a central location, the company can analyze this information in an efficient way. This efficient information can help the managers of the company in making different business decisions by looking at the data in the data warehouse separately. The patterns and connections of data can only be discovered ...