Note: There is an updated version of this article, which applies to the next generation of TimeXtender.

When using a Business Unit

A data staging area is a temporary storage area between the data sources and a data warehouse.

The staging area is mainly used to quickly extract data from its data sources, minimizing the impact of the sources.

After data has been loaded into the staging area, the staging area is used to combine data from multiple data sources, transformations, validations, data cleansing. Data is often transformed into a star schema prior to loading a data warehouse.

In TimeXtender, a Business Unit has a Staging Database to store data extracted from sources. There is a 1:1 relationship between staging databases and business units. To have multiple staging areas you must have multiple business units. You need at least one business unit within a project, thus you will always have at least one staging area.

In TimeXtender you cannot load directly between data sources and a data warehouse.

When using an ODX Server