Data Academy is a data warehouse builder which leverages the functionality of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, together with its companion products SQL Server Integration Services for loading data and SQL Server Analysis Services for building and processing OLAP cubes.
Data Academy is a powerful application with an intuitive interface and a full administrative console. It consists of two key components: an ASP.NET Web User Interface and a Windows Service, both of which can be installed on any Windows 2003/8 Server. They both connect to a local or remote installation of SQL Server 2005.
It builds robust, reliable and expandable data warehouses and data marts in a fraction of the time it takes when using conventional native SQL tools. It does this by providing a series of pre-built frameworks for loading and transforming data, which compliment the native functionality of SQL Server, offering "point and click" solutions to problems like incremental data loads, and evolving pivot outputs.
Initial installation is a breeze - just run the two installers and point Data Academy to an empty (or existing) SQL Server 2005 database. When it is time to upgrade Data Academy (we produce new versions typically twice a year) our database installer ensures that process is just as painless.
Then, open the developer interface in Internet Explorer and you will be ready to do the business - whether it is creating a simple data loader, a complex star schema transformation or a clever OLAP cube, you will be working faster than ever before with our powerful framework underpinning your knowledge and experience.
The typical output from Data Academy is a native SQL object - such as a User Defined Function or an SSIS Package - which you can then further customize via Management Studio or BIDS. These objects provide extensive run-time information, allowing effective performance analysis and debugging; and constitute the basis of a structured and effective data warehouse.
Once you have completed the initial development of your data warehouse, a common problem is running and synchronizing your "dev", "test" and "live" environments. Data Academy solves this issue via Data Academy TRANS-it - an import/export module, which allows you to move Data Academy objects (Data Loaders, Transformation Spaces, etc...) from one server to another, without affecting the rest of the environment, so you can choose to release an entire data warehouse from "test" to "live" or just a single object.