BI & DW for Ruby/Rails
BI & DW for Ruby/Rails
- Business Intelligence
- Corporate Performance Mgmt
- Budgeting and Planning
- Business Performance Mgmt
- Enterprise Dashboards
- Enterprise Performance Mgmt
BI Basics
Step 1:
![Business feedback control systems](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/business-feedback-control-systems.png)
Learn Ruby on Rails - Ruby On Rails tutorial - Business feedback control systems - Ruby On Rails examples - Ruby On Rails programs
Step 2:
![Operational Management](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/operational-management.png)
Learn Ruby on Rails - Ruby On Rails tutorial - Operational Management - Ruby On Rails examples - Ruby On Rails programs
Step 3:
![Executive Management](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/executive-management.png)
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Step 4:
![Rails Perspective](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/traditional-rails-perspective.png)
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Real time BI problems
![BI Problems](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/real-time-business-intelligence-problem.png)
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What is ETL?
![ETL](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/extract-transform-load.png)
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![Cubes](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/cubes.png)
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MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP
![Molap-rolap-holap](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/molap-rolap-holap.png)
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Why we go for BI
![Business Intelligence](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/business-intelligence.png)
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ActiveWarehouse-ETL
ActiveWarehouse
- Rails plugin by Anthony Eden ROLAP solution based on ActiveRecord Features
- Generators for Facts, Dimensions, Cubes and Bridges
- Supports calculated fields
- View helpers for reports with drill down
- Rails gem/plugin by Anthony Eden DSL for extract – transform – load Source/sink: file, db, xml, .. (extensible) Features
- Pre/post processors
- Transformations
![active warehouse](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/active-warehouse.jpg)
Learn Ruby on Rails - Ruby On Rails tutorial - active warehouse - Ruby On Rails examples - Ruby On Rails programs
![active warehouse](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/active-warehouse-step1.png)
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Product listing at Cupcakes Inc..
![Product Listing](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/product-listing.png)
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Customer listing at Cupcakes Inc..
![Customer Listing](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/customer-listing.png)
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Order listing at Cupcakes Inc..
![Order Listing](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/order-listing-at-cupcakes.png)
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Order detail at Cupcakes Inc..
![Order Details](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/order-details.png)
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Sales By Product AW Report
![Sales by product](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/sales-by-product-aw-report.png)
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Sales By Product (drill to 2009)
![Sales by product](https://wikitechy.com/tutorials/ruby-on-rails/img/ruby-on-rails-images/sales-by-product.png)
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Language
BI Suites
- ETL processing, cube rules etc typically use custom languages (often archaic and limited)
Ruby on Rails
- It’s … ruby!
UI Customisation and Presentation Integration
BI Suites
- Web delivery typically very constrained.
- Often rely on strong integration with office software (Excel). Leads to “custom application development in Excel” syndrome.
Ruby on Rails
- It’s … ActionPack!
- Google maps mashups, social graph links. .. you get full UI control, as long as you have the development budget.
Speed of development
BI Suites
- Basic deployments can be very fast.
- But UI inflexibility can lead to either lots of time wasted trying to shoe-horn, or need to “reset customer expectations”
Ruby on Rails
- It’s … Ruby & Rails
TCO
BI Suites
- Top-tier suites can come with a hefty $ tag. And prices are going up..
- But some analysts are predicting 2010 to be the year BI gets FLOSS momentum (see gigaohm review of 5 well established alternatives)
Ruby on Rails
- Trade-in software license costs for more development.
Caveats..
Native MOLAP
BI Suites
- Generally good support for database MOLAP features.
- Can be platform specific though – e.g. Microsoft MDX, SQL Server Analytical Services
Ruby on Rails
- A gap. No real support currently available.
- ActiveWarehouse uses relational model to “fake” MOLAP (ROLAP)
Performance
BI Suites
- Generally, all established analytical engines (and backing databases) have great performance track record. Huge scalability (millions of rows)
Ruby on Rails
- Unproven. ActiveWarehouse/ETL does not have many (public) proof points.
- Given that it is tied to AR performance, expect scalability could be an issue.
BI on Rails Solutions
- Plain AR
- just avoid the rabbit hole
- AR + ETL
- get all the data you need in one place
- AW+ETL
- traditional ROLAP, make Rails the focus of the BI effort
- Go the BI suite route
- When you need to adapt to many transactional systems at scale, and customer has the $$
- (Rails remains just for transactional apps)