As the volume and complexity of both data and user queries continue to grow, BI application performance often deteriorates over time. This is especially true when infrastructure budgets do not allow for the unlimited addition of server, storage, or disk I/O capacity.

DBclassify addresses the root-cause of common BI performance problems in several ways.

Optimize BI Data Models

DBclassfiy enables you to closely align the design of the data warehouse with the actual needs of end-users, during the information analysis process. By taking advantage of DBclassify’s context-rich insight into day-to-day usage patterns, you can fully optimize data models to deliver the best possible application response times for any given set of business requirements, workloads and infrastructure constraints.

DBclassify also enables you to continually compare data model design with actual use, and update data warehouse structures over time as appropriate to reflect changes in data usage patterns. This is essential for maintaining BI performance in today’s highly dynamic business environments.

Improve BI Performance

BI performance is often undermined by uneven distribution of “hot” and “cool” data across the data warehouse environment’s multiple drives. DBclassify, however, makes it easy to determine which “hot” data to stripe to a tier 0 storage layer, such as a flash drive or in-memory database, which “cold” data to move to lower-cost storage, and which “frozen” (dormant) data can be archived. This usage-based striping enables IT organizations to derive optimum BI performance from existing infrastructure investments—and thereby defer additional hardware purchases.

Optimize Aggregation, Indexing, and Partitioning Strategies

BI applications where ad hoc queries are the norm, it is often necessary to use aggregation and indexing to optimize performance. With DBclassify you can easily identify the candidate columns for aggregation tables in order to improve query response times. Furthermore, by analyzing the exact SQL expressions that access a given column, you can also use DBclassify to guide indexing and partitioning decisions. For example, if the range of data accessed is weekly or monthly, the best partitioning resolution might also be weekly or monthly.

Better Allocation of BI Staff Resources

In addition to helping IT organizations get the most value from their existing infrastructure investments, DBclassify also helps utilize BI resources to maximum effect. For example, by providing reports that quickly reveal database usage patterns, DBclassify eliminates the extensive manual effort typically needed to determine how information is used, by whom, and when. This dramatically reduces the time required to plan, design and improve BI applications. Furthermore, DBclassify makes it much easier to prioritize BI application performance management tasks by enabling you to focus on the requirements and response-time issues facing specific groups. This allows you to prioritize your efforts based on value to the business—giving precedence, for example, to revenue-critical marketing projects over less time-sensitive analyses.