What are Data Source Types? (2024)

The data companies analyze through business intelligence comes from a diverse type of data sources. The most common examples of these are:

  • Databases
  • Flat files
  • Web services
  • Other sources such as RSS feeds

Databases

Databases are the most traditional type of data source in BI. There are many different kinds of databases, and many vendors providing databases with different architectures and different features. Common databases used today include MS Access, Oracle, DB2, Informix, SQL, MySQL, Amazon SimpleDB and a host of others.

Traditionally, transactional databases—namely the ones that record the company’s daily transactions, such as CRM, HRM and ERP—are not considered optimal for business intelligence. This is for a variety of reasons, including the fact that a) data is not optimized for reporting and analysis and b) querying directly against these databases may slow down the system and prevent the databases from recording transactions in real time.

In some cases, companies use an ETL tool to collect data from their transactional databases, transform them to be optimized for BI and load them into a data warehouse or other data mart. The main downside of this approach is that a data warehouse is a complex and expensive architecture, which is why many other companies opt to report directly against their transactional databases.

Flat Files

Few companies today have not used Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Their ease of use and widespread employ makes them as popular as ever.

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What are Data Source Types? (1)

What are Data Source Types? (2024)

FAQs

What are types of data sources? ›

There are two types of data sources: machine data sources and file data sources. Although both contain similar information about the source of the data, they differ in the way this information is stored.

What is the data source answer? ›

A data source is the location where data that is being used originates from. A data source may be the initial location where data is born or where physical information is first digitized, however even the most refined data may serve as a source, as long as another process accesses and utilizes it.

What is an example of a data source? ›

Examples of sources of data

Imagine a fashion brand that sells products online. The website uses an inventory database to determine whether an item is available. In this case, the inventory tables are a data source that the web application uses to serve the website to customers.

What are the 3 sources of data? ›

Sources of information or evidence are often categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary material. These classifications are based on the originality of the material and the proximity of the source or origin.

What are the 4 main types of data? ›

4 Types Of Data- Nominal, Ordinal, Discrete And Continuous.

How many types of source data are there? ›

The sources of data can be classified into two types: statistical and non-statistical. Statistical sources refer to data that is gathered for some official purposes, incorporate censuses, and officially administered surveys.

What is my data sources? ›

My Data sources is a folder created by windows itself to store data connections , for example if you connect an excel sheet to a data source the connection information is stored there.

What are the examples of data sources and uses? ›

Examples of primary data sources include surveys and questionnaires, direct observations, experiments, interviews, and focus groups. As a researcher, you must be familiar with primary data sources, which are original data collected firsthand specifically for your research purposes.

What are 2 types of data? ›

There are two general types of data – quantitative and qualitative and both are equally important. You use both types to demonstrate effectiveness, importance or value.

What is a data source word? ›

A Data Source is a file that contains the information to be merged with the Main Document, such as names and addresses.

What are the 2 types of sources? ›

The two kinds of sources

There are two kinds of sources: primary and secondary. The main difference between a primary and a secondary source is when they were made. In order to determine whether a particular source is a primary or secondary source, you need to discover its time of creation.

What are the examples of data? ›

This is numerical data. It includes information like age, time, height, weight, etc. The data is collected by measuring it on required parameters. For example, data on the number of students playing different sports from your class is in quantitative form.

What are the five main sources of data? ›

Examples of primary data sources include surveys and questionnaires, direct observations, experiments, interviews, and focus groups. As a researcher, you must be familiar with primary data sources, which are original data collected firsthand specifically for your research purposes.

What are the 5 methods of data collection? ›

The 5 most common methods for data gathering are, (a) Document reviews (b) Interviews (c) Focus groups (d) Surveys (e) Observation or testing. While each has many possible variations, we will discuss their typical use here. Here are some basic principles to keep in mind when selecting methods.

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