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PeerSpot user
Business Intelligence Architect at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Automation, Automation, Automation...

What is most valuable?

Automation, Automation, Automation....

Automation of Data Warehouse Tasks - Traditional ETL tools are a one-size-fits-all solution. They can often be like a programming language--you can do anything you could ever imagine, but you have to manually create each and every instruction. This leads to a total lack of agility because you have to manually create each and every step. WhereScape, on the other hand, is meant for the specific task of building data warehouses. The product takes on much of the painful, time-consuming, manual and repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on meeting business requirements.

Automation of Documentation - This is perhaps the best feature of the product. Based on your design, it creates two sets of documentation--one for your technical teams and one for end-users--which show the data model, metadata, and just about anything else you’d want to know about the model.

Impact Analysis - During the lifetime of a data warehouse, there is regularly a need to enhance and extend the warehouse, but it can often be difficult to understand how changes will impact other things downstream. In WhereScape, you can simply click on an object and perform an impact analysis to see how changes to that object will impact other objects. You can also do the reverse of this, looking at an object and “tracking back” to see what objects are used to build it.

Code Runs on the Database - When you build objects in WhereScape (through a point-and-click GUI), the product automatically generates target-specific code. So, for instance, if your target platform is SQL Server, it will generate T-SQL stored procedures for updating your warehouse objects. When jobs are run, this code gets executed on the target database. This essentially means that the ETL is serverless. You do not need a massively sized ETL server to handle the ETL code because it’s simply code being handled by the database, which in my experience, is much more efficient.

How has it helped my organization?

We are able to build data models much faster than previously and much faster than using a traditional ETL tool. It allows us to focus on the most important aspect of a data warehouse--business requirements--instead of focusing on the low-level details of the development platform.

What needs improvement?

As with any product, there are things that can be improved, but most are fairly minor, including things like greater flexibility in ordering job tasks. I’d also like to see increased support for NoSQL data sources.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the product for about 5 months.

Buyer's Guide
WhereScape RED
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about WhereScape RED. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None yet. Because there is no server component, other than a lightweight job scheduler, it’s really just the installation of the software and some basic initial setup. Couldn’t be easier.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

Very good customer service. Kind, helpful, and knowledgeable.

Technical Support:

This is another area where WhereScape shines. They are not a huge organization, so you get very prompt and personalized care. My support tickets are always answered very quickly and they listen to my suggestions. And, perhaps most importantly, their support team knows the product inside and out. You will not deal with inexperienced first-level support techs.

They also made experts available to help us quickly answer any questions about best practices, how to accomplish specific tasks, etc.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our purchase of WhereScape was part of a larger re-architecture of our data warehouse. We chose to move away from other products for a variety of reasons, but our choice of WhereScape was largely based on its ability to speed up the development process through automation.

How was the initial setup?

As noted previously, the software generates database code for the target platform and runs that code on the database server itself, so it’s very lightweight. The only components are 1) Client Software and 2) A Lightweight Scheduler. The installation of these two components is very quick and easy.

What about the implementation team?

In-house, although we did get some help from their professional services group, largely for advice on best practices, how to handle complex data transformations, etc. The team is very knowledgeable and seems to have answers to just about every complex question we could think of.

What was our ROI?

Probably a bit too early to report on this but we expect a good ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is much less expensive than traditional ETL tools. Licensing is very simple to understand.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, we looked at various traditional ETL packages as well as other Data Warehouse automation tools. We chose WhereScape over traditional ETL for reasons noted previously and chose WhereScape over other automation tools because it appeared to be the most mature of these solutions.

What other advice do I have?

As other reviewers have noted, data warehouse automation requires you to change your thinking and perspective somewhat. If you are looking at this product as a simple replacement for your existing ETL and try to use it exactly the way you used ETL, then you will not fully realize the functional benefits (the cost benefits will still be there though). You need to think more in terms of agile data warehouse design. For those new to this concept, I recommend a book called “Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema” by Lawrence Corr and Jim Stagnitto. WhereScape fits very nicely into the concepts presented in the book.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chris S - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Developer at HealthRIGHT 360
User
Generates needed reporting without requiring a large team of developers to manually code
Pros and Cons
  • "WhereScape's deployment package is a fantastic feature. The application allows for selecting specific objects that you would like to deploy from one environment to another rather than deploying the entire database."
  • "WhereScape RED has improved our business's ability to generate needed reporting without requiring a large team of developers to manually code all of the necessary plumbing."
  • "The scheduled jobs which are run by the WhereScape scheduler seem to be a strangely separate animal. Unlike all other WhereScape objects, jobs cannot be added to WhereScape projects. Also, unlike all other objects, jobs also cannot be deleted using a WhereScape deployment application."

What is our primary use case?

ETL processing in SQL Server into structures which are suitable for supporting business reporting needs. Automation of the importing and processing work.

How has it helped my organization?

WhereScape RED has improved our business's ability to generate needed reporting without requiring a large team of developers to manually code all of the necessary plumbing. WhereScape does a good job of handling this on its own.

What is most valuable?

WhereScape's deployment package is a fantastic feature. The application allows for selecting specific objects that you would like to deploy from one environment to another rather than deploying the entire database. This allows us to easily work as an agile team. At deployment time, WhereScape determines how to make the objects in the selected destination match the objects in the deployment application (through create and drop, then create and alter, etc.). Therefore, regardless of the state of the destination, we can be confident that the deployed objects will match the objects that we intended to deploy without disturbing anything else in the database. This is a huge benefit to our process because we can quickly create these packages, handing them off to teams who will be deployed to testing and production environments. All they have to do is deploy the package as-is.

What needs improvement?

The scheduled jobs which are run by the WhereScape scheduler seem to be a strangely separate animal. Unlike all other WhereScape objects, jobs cannot be added to WhereScape projects. Also, unlike all other objects, jobs also cannot be deleted using a WhereScape deployment application.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
WhereScape RED
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about WhereScape RED. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director, Corporate Systems at a hospitality company with 5,001-10,000 employees
User
Data transformations and rollups are easy to accomplish
Pros and Cons
  • "Data transformations and rollups are easy to accomplish."
  • "Quickly develops a data warehouse for our organization with documentation and can track back/forward features."
  • "The ability to execute SSIS projects within WhereScape would be nice because we have a lot of packages that are too cumbersome to recreate."
  • "They need a more robust support center. It has been a bit difficult to find solutions to problems that are out-of-the-box."

What is our primary use case?

Quickly develops a data warehouse for our organization with documentation and can track back/forward features.

How has it helped my organization?

Speed to market of a warehouse solution at a relatively inexpensive price point.  We used a consultant to get us started, but the tutorials offered by product were very helpful as well.

What is most valuable?

Documentation and the ability to track back/forward from fields, processes, etc. Data transformations and rollups are easy to accomplish.

What needs improvement?

A more robust support center. It has been a bit difficult to find solutions to problems that are out-of-the-box. It would be nice to have user groups available on their website. 

The ability to execute SSIS projects within WhereScape would be nice because we have a lot of packages that are too cumbersome to recreate.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Jim Mihalick - PeerSpot reviewer
Jim MihalickSr. Technical Consultant/Architect with 11-50 employees
User

Hi Angel, now this is funny. It's Jim Mihalick at Teknion Data Solution. Geoff and I would be glad to give you a hand on how to do this in Wherescape.

See all 3 comments
PeerSpot user
Data Technology Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It saves time in virtually every aspect of building a Data Warehouse.

What is most valuable?

  • The automatic generation of all scripts allows for a very agile development process.
  • Wherescape also generates very thorough documentation automatically.

How has it helped my organization?

The development speed was greatly improved by using WhereScape. It saves time in virtually every aspect of building a Data Warehouse. It provides a great overview of everything you've created which makes trouble-shooting much easier as well.

What needs improvement?

There are some newer features that haven't been included in the training materials yet so they're a little outdated (although the help documentation is very good).

There are also some more complex data transformations that aren't supported and so need to be done in multiple steps.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are two months into an enterprise-wide data warehousing project using Wherescape as the primary tool.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No deployment issues noticed.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

In our experience they are happy to help and quick to reply with development solutions whenever needed.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, this was a ground-up Data Warehouse build.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy and we were able to begin development almost immediately.

What about the implementation team?

We are a data analytics consultancy that is implementing WhereScape for one of our clients.

What was our ROI?

Two months into the project we are currently 50% under budget due to how quickly it's possible to develop large-scale solutions in WhereScape. We were able to train a team with no prior WhereScape experience and begin development in much less time than if we built a standard data-warehouse, while writing procedures and creating our own documentation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

WhereScape pays for itself very quickly.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered many alternatives including only using SSIS and SQL Server to build the entire warehouse.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Data Engineer ( Business, Technology and Information Services ) at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Automation tool - spend less time writing code
Pros and Cons
  • "I found the initial setup very easy."
  • "The solution can be a little more user-friendly on enterprise-level where people use it."

How has it helped my organization?

WhereScape Red helps to speed things up. It has many useful features and version 8 is  reliable. When I first started using it after having worked with Cognos Data Manager, I didn't really find it to be an enterprise-level tool because it was still very flaky. In fact, it had quite a number of bugs. It would fail on every second thing. If you are using it for some basic tasks, it will work fine, but as soon as you try some of the more complex features it would fail. I've seen a lot of improvement in the new versions.

What is most valuable?

Among the features I found most valuable is its support for Kimball Methodology and data warehousing best practices.

What needs improvement?

The schedular needs improvement 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for three years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I don't think the solution is very stable. I find that once you use this tool, you would like to have it in your tool kit. Even though I like this tool numerous bugs made it difficult and unreliable . Several of them have been fixed in the new releases. At an enterprise-level, you need a lot more. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability seems okay. It handles most of the data for our 30 sources. We are giving each source an independent repository and a separate EDW repo that uses synonyms for the target objects in the source repos.

We currently have six developers or data engineers using WhereScape, but we don't plan to increase the number, because training is not very cheap.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have the advantage of having very close access to WhereScape's technical support. It was easy to get them to come on-site and answer many of the issues that we've had. That was quite a significant advantage.

How was the initial setup?

I found the initial setup very easy. In fact, after one month of using it, I was able to have an independent setup on my own workstation. that shows how easy it is to set it up.

I started using this solution with MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) .They have been a long-term customer of WhereScape Red. When I joined them, they had about 5 WhereScape Red users.

What other advice do I have?

I would not hesitate to say that if someone has really limited time for a project it can make a difference and you can have the data ready for use in a very short period of time. This can be a lifesaver. I will rate this solution a seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user

It would be helpful if you described what you are using RED for - do you create multidimensional structures such as cubes or star and snowflake schemas? How flexible is RED for maturing older, under-developed warehouses? Why spend the extra funds for other database/data warehouse tools if you've already invested in Microsoft, Oracle, PostGre or other SQL based tools?

Manager IT - Business Intelligence & Analytics at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
An automated data integration tool with a useful data vault, but performance could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the data vault implementations."
  • "Customization could be better."

What is our primary use case?

I used WhereScape RED to do a proof of concept and understand how it worked.

What is most valuable?

I like the data vault implementations. It's useful. I also like the ELT feature. I also like the automatic generation of logic as it saves time. I like anything from the beta world, and that's why I took a look at this product.

What needs improvement?

Customization could be better. When you need to modify or write some custom code, it can get a little messy. Performance can also be better. It would be nice to have synchronicity when integrating multiple tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using WhereScape RED for a year or two.

How are customer service and technical support?

I received very good support from the Asia Pacific team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used IBM InfoSphere DataStage and SSIS before.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is fairly straightforward. It was a little challenging because we needed additional access.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our company purchased a corporate unlimited license.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this product to new users. 

On a scale from one to ten, I would give WhereScape RED a seven.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Sr. Research Analyst - Data Management Practice Head at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
It is a "white box" solution. You can see (and even modify) everything that is generated.

What is most valuable?

  • Good fit with agile development including requirements discovery and data discovery
  • Embedding of standards and design patterns into the tool yields substantial quality and consistency gains
  • Schema generation
  • Source-to-target mapping automation
  • Code/script generation
  • Test automation
  • Versioning at multiple levels from objects to entire data warehouse
  • Scheduling / runtime management functions

How has it helped my organization?

  • Agility
  • Speed of deployment
  • Quick response to changes in requirements and changes in source data
  • Skilled people no longer burdened with repetitive low-value tasks

What needs improvement?

  • Data discovery would be more powerful with machine learning features
  • Big data functions could include some of the features of the advanced self-service data preparation tools

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Excellent

Technical Support:

Excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Reviewed several other solutions and chose WhereScape because:

(1) It is built by practitioners, for practitioners

(2) It is a "white box" solution. You can see (and even modify) everything that is generated. It doesn't lock you in like the "black box" proprietary products.

What other advice do I have?

Don't confuse data warehouse automation with ETL automation. DWA automates the entire data warehousing life cycle. Change your approach (think agile), change your processes (think end-to-end ... source data to business impact), and change your perspective (think cyclic, not linear). Without these changes you miss out on many of the benefits of automation.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: I provide unbiased, vendor-neutral education and research in the field of data management. I have researched, reviewed, and tested several vendor's products.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
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Updated: October 2024
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free WhereScape RED Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.