Data Vault Modeling is a database modeling method that is designed to provide long-term historical storage of data coming in from multiple operational systems. It is also a method of looking at historical data that, apart from the modeling aspect, deals with issues such as auditing, tracing of data, loading speed and resilience to change.
Data Vault Modeling focuses on several things. First, it emphasizes the need to trace of where all the data in the database came from. This means that every row in a Data Vault must be accompanied by record source and load date attributes, enabling an auditor to trace values back to the source.
Second, it makes no distinction between good and bad data ("bad" meaning not conforming to business rules). This is summarized in the statement that a Data Vault stores "a single version of the facts" (also expressed by Dan Linstedt as "all the data, all of the time") as opposed to the practice in other data warehouse methods of storing "a single version of the truth" where data that does not conform to the definitions is removed or "cleansed".
Third, the modeling method is designed to be resilient to change in the business environment where the data being stored is coming from, by explicitly separating structural information from descriptive attributes.
Finally, Data Vault is designed to enable parallel loading as much as possible, so that very large implementations can scale out without the need for major redesign.
Read more about Data Vault Modeling: History and Philosophy, Basic Notions, Loading Practices, Data Vault and Dimensional Modelling, Data Vault Methodology, Tools
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