Database - eWeek

Database: iLuminate Takes a New Data Warehouse Tack


Illuminate's iLuminate 4.0 offers a new take on building data warehouses, eschewing typical relational or column-based storage models for what the company describes as a correlation database model. In my tests of iLuminate, I was impressed by the way the product enabled me to load a healthy-sized data set into the engine and, without any other organization or optimization, begin drilling arbitrarily through the data using Illuminate's analysis tool, iCorrelate. See my full review here.
 
  • iLuminate Takes a New Data Warehouse Tack
    by Jason Brooks
  • Data Statistics
    I used Illuminate's iCorrelate analysis tool to drill down into tables, columns or query results, and view statistics on the information.
  • Expression Generator
    I used iCorrelate's expressions feature to create two copies of the recipient ID columns.
  • Table Relationships
    I linked one of the copied columns to the candidates table and the other to the committees table to use the tool's Get Relations and Find Relations query options.
  • Find Relations
    I used the tool's Find Relations option to locate all the records that pointed to my results set of candidate entries.
  • Data Loading Tools
    Before I could begin exploring my campaign data, I had to load it into the iLuminate engine, a task for which Illuminate offers two tool options: the iLuminate Importer and iLook & Load.
  • iLook & Load
    Of the two tools, iLook & Load provided more information about my data as it entered the system, such as the totals and averages of integer-typed columns and the maximum and minimum values of individual columns.
  • iLuminate Importer
    The stock importer tool performed faster than iLook & Load, handling my 15 million-record individual contributions table in about an hour and a half, compared with about five and a half hours with iLook & Load. In either case, the engine indexes all the data at load time.
  • ODBC Connectivity
    I could access any of my tables or stored queries through an external application (in my case, Microsoft Excel) via ODBC.
  • Train-of-Thought Queries
    When one of my queries covering the 1990 to 2008 election cycles turned up only results after 2002, I modified my query and went in search of those missing results.
  • Service Monitor
    I could start, stop, create and switch among database files using a service monitor tool that would minimize to my system tray.
  • Charts and Reports
    I could generate typical chart types within iCorrelate, as well as export my data sets to CSV files and create reports.
xڽ;ks8_%+N&R\]@8AZV2 %Qx4X!mnZC%B_L9lHa,p;.6iv+nҶ\[Mg4Zxږ3#En~H] ٻ<7tF~ly9LhT?`#B}ot b뷩>!%0 C둁8#O9Y4MlC$bax" 1>gFͤm.ˣ4IM˚foh{O #x9|j9<'6=U(S,jRl&'IXFW>9eG%5B,aer9Etoٝѽc 9V>=g fb6W q:%R-'( |<4Rq$7 ":𡥤8Ëm{1 9EoJLX;Q{B1o.r*ud5|掙\i+"N,Tu~Q6GdJd~|Ϙ+eȆ4cq!-WHCF!VќχWEI )1-w ?<J[Ws۸#@J}lڙu(N- c, bAlˈyvN.`ߏKg`_8" twF'۫ԺԘ-vsW"{mIXؾ'&oU Un[kj ;9|AeRg,zL(]Y'+iQ語8p ҇RtsMPj5``GG o{RgtX7xEM3ua88yaQaJh /2nЎx&+=,`AF'z@Ypob /F.ʪUV!q@cB7y۴]}o؜@dqX¬_s"> l莾񠘍gw(Mk߅{%-* iHC @QEuҵZU6_$ ɫ20=#;<]lXrh@2PJ #O-\9=ujry$ >xl5޼yioHˣU 4I'Y!s\QQB }F`!0Ǘ||C#&zM,9_Q،7)\kAqש<҆5x?_8o ;\F'~#{jTM@BH8t44ܿSvh_a}@:R?I,V4%H.=>H|_)'_7f J6l4^K4EҦÓZb+ =rƞi{x3$kVĉ;o RΛgavq@oWB]ӹF~x>I<h r5ۧP:^u=`67ILr IM2۪%ӢnJC$f͔k6FjN7k[ު< HBpBuW5~Ce Ho%017UPlN[#M\jaU^Oz>`M1:Z4D@@x BCswNH_7 y n52 GX Q#!ƾ5Y"7I%KI|T\cII_Ky* I]S!,#U]JSƇM B]; GKQV h_ZB8;Fh)^V SGAz %Szgg-D#ǓAe@Hs"k&+&IBl/,G4ʘ HK\HPo0?/_[9OD}HX>/_xA"6~/H6Ae]+VצkH&1^pb[s|~mF 9yC=M݂,elv\bH"M2is;>[iݴ6oim9(ԕ蠂+2\v(&x>Iaoɞ 1^smܞKjbw_7k*j6"Lä*~;Q*9:RʳQJY]76}I]0b l@D&{,7WJ4;Z[@:o^[