Today, we are living in a "big" time. There is lots of talk about "big data," from data warehouse teams, industry pundits and vendors. That is fine. It would be old-fashioned to ignore the impact of “big,” especially big data, and what it means for our data warehouses. However, before we effectively embrace "big," we need to make "small" things sound.

Thus, I consider the mission of this channel to be bringing about an engineering scientific renaissance to "Data Warehouse Realization" in order to build a solid foundation for a real "big" jump.

With my first article series Start Small: Single Version of the Definition, we should have an accurate enterprise data warehouse definition and know quite exactly WHAT is to be realized. This is a small, but good start. The major remaining questions are HOW to effectively realize it and WHY in the chosen ways. As an engineer with a little philosophical flavor, I am convinced that we – yes, of course, with you – can accomplish it definitively! Please join in this challenge by providing your constructive comments, inspiring opinions, provocative questions, imaginative suggestions, helpful advice and valuable thoughts. For all these, you can always reach me by email at bin.jiang@bluewin.ch.