Interoperable Distributed Data Warehouse Components

Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL) are the major functionalities in data warehouse (DW) solutions. Lack of component distribution and interoperability is a gap that leads to many problems in the ETL domain, because these ETL components are tightly-coupled in the current ETL framework. Furthermore, complexity of components extensibility is another gap in the ETL area, because of the same tight-coupling reason. The missing extensibility feature causes impediments to add new components to the current ETL framework; to meet special business needs. This paper discusses how to distribute the Extraction, Transformation and Loading components so as to achieve distribution and interoperability of these ETL components. In addition, it shows how the ETL framework can be extended easier. To achieve that, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is adopted to address the mentioned missing features of distribution and interoperability by restructuring the current ETL framework. Moreover, a Classified-Fragmentation component to enhance the report generation speed is added to the new framework as a proof of the extensibility concept. Therefore, this paper came out with a conceptual framework for interoperable distributed ETL components. This framework is defined to be a common ETL framework, which is valid for any ETL implementation that chooses this framework as a base. Moreover, the theoretical framework is validated by experts from industrial companies.