Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW)

The type of information that a data warehouse should deliver is largely determined by individual business needs. In practice this often results in a number of isolated applications which are referred to as silos or stove pipes. To avoid isolated applications, a comprehensive, harmonized data warehouse solution is often favored; the Enterprise Data Warehouse.

An Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) is a company-wide data warehouse that is built to include all the different layers. An organization-wide, single and central data warehouse layer is also referred to as an EDW.

An Enterprise Data Warehouse has to provide flexible structures and layers so that it can react quickly to new business challenges (such as changed objectives, mergers, acquisitions).