It's important to design your database before you actually create it. The right database design can make a major difference in the usefulness of your data, and the speed with which you can retrieve it.
Sybase PowerDesigner can help you design your database, by building a conceptual, physical, or object-oriented data model, and then generating the database from the model. It also lets you reverse engineer, creating a model from an existing database.
No matter which design tool is used, the database administrator (DBA) generally designs the database and defines its contents. To create an effective design, the DBA needs to work with individuals throughout your organization to understand how data will be used. The DBA also needs to understand the concepts underlying IQ databases.
An Sybase IQ database is a relational database that is optimized for use as a data warehouse. As a relational database, it consists of a set of related tables that organize the data; as a data warehouse, it provides efficient access to very large sets of data by means of indexes.
When you create a database, you specify the structure of these tables, the types of data allowed in them, the relationships among tables, the indexes that store the table data, and views that control who has access to the data. Before using the procedures in this chapter to create an IQ database, be sure you understand the relational database and data warehousing concepts described in Introduction to Sybase IQ.
