Difference between Kimball and Inmon

One of the important aspects of business development is the design of a Data Warehouse in which a schema is used to collect different data sources. The two popular architectures used to design a data warehouse are Kimball and Inmon. In this article, we will discuss the difference between Kimball and Inmon.

What is Kimball?

Ralph Kimball introduced the Kimball approach to design a data warehouse. This is an approach in which business processes and questions are recognized and the answer to these questions has to be given by the data warehouse. The information provided by the data warehouse is documented after the answers are analyzed.

The software that is used to retrieve data from all data sources is known as Extract Transform Load. The data sources from where the data is received are known as data marts. The analyzed data is loaded into a common area called staging and then transformed into an OLAP cube.

Uses of Kimball

Kimball has following uses ?

• It can be easily set up
• Report generation is very easy
• Database operations are very efficient
• The space occupied by Kimball in a database is low
• Managing Kimball is easy

What is Inmon?

Inmon was introduced by Bill Inmon for designing a data warehouse. This is an approach in which a corporate data model is used for designing a data warehouse. This approach can be used to create a detailed logical model which is further used to create a physical model. This is a complicated model which is used for the creation of a data mart.

Uses of Inmon

Inmon has following uses ?

• The data warehouse created through Inmon is very flexible
• It is very easy to understand all the processes of a business
• Report generation is easy and can be used by all departments in a business

Difference between Kimball and Inmon

The table below shows the difference between Kimball and Inmon.

Kimball Vs. Inmon - Which is Best?

Kimball and Inmon are the architectures which are used to make a data warehouse. Kimball supports a bottom-up approach and focuses on individual business areas. It is cost-effective and consumes less time in making a data warehouse. Inmon supports a top-down approach and is costly at the initial stage. It takes more time in developing a data warehouse. Generic skills are needed to work on Kimball while Inmon requires specialized skills.

Conclusion

Kimball and Inmon are the data architectures that are used to make a data warehouse. Ralph Kimball introduced the Kimball architecture which is easy to use. Bottom-up implementation is followed by Kimball and individual business areas are focused. Bill Inmon developed the Inmon model which supports bottom-up implementation. Inmon is a time-consuming process and is also expensive.

FAQs on Kimball Vs. Inmon

1. What type of approach is followed by Kimball and Inmon architectures?

Kimball supports a bottom-up approach while Inmon supports a top-down approach.

2. Which architecture takes less time to build a data warehouse?

Kimball takes less time to design a data warehouse. It is a very efficient and effective approach and its cost is also less in comparison to Inmon. In the case of Inmon, it is a complicated approach and consumes a lot of time. Its initial cost is high but development cost is low.

3. What skills are required to work on Kimball and Inmon?

Kimball is easy to use and generic skills are sufficient to use this architecture. In the case of Inmon, individuals should have special skills to make a data warehouse.

4. Which data model is supported by Kimball and Inmon

Kimball supports a denormalized data model while Inmon supports a normalized data model.

5. Which business areas are supported by Kimball and Inmon?

Kimball keeps its focus on individual business areas while Inmon focuses on the entire business areas.