15 June 07 - 01:48Data Warehouse / Business Intelligence - PostgreSQL or Oracle

I've just started a new contract for a Federal department where an old grants management system is being replaced with a PostgreSQL/Java based version.  The sister project (sub project really) is a data warehouse.  The choices were Oracle or PostgreSQL (PostgreSQL was what attracted me to the contract actually)

The argument that I have been unable to win in putting together a warehouse on PostgreSQL comes down to tool maturity - ie the risk involved in something "not proven" so it is almost certainly going to be built using Oracle Warehouse Builder and a BI tool tbd.

I have a long history with databases, and experience with PostgreSQL that dates to the beginning of version 7, however I've never been involved in formal datawarehousing or ETL - so I can't speak with the authority I would prefer ;-)

From my research (mostly involving asking Liam at Fujitsu) Bizgres which seems to be still at the "not finished" stage, and Jasper.  I have experience in Jasper products from some time back - they looked very good then - so I can't wait to try out JasperETL.

In any case I am likely to do a parallel run of the work with OWB using Jasper/Postgres to see how they go in my own time.  I would welcome any comments on all this - particularly if they can be backed up with real-world datawarehousing projects.

For those wondering about this blog, family illness has kept me from this for some time, unfortunately... something that is now coming to an end in a good way.

Cheers,

Mathew Frank (http://frakkle.com)

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