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Building a Unified Star Schema on top of a Data Vault

  • Writer: Rhys Hanscombe
    Rhys Hanscombe
  • Sep 5, 2023
  • 2 min read

If you missed the fantastic session by Francesco Puppini at the 2023 Data Vault Conference, here’s your chance to catch up on the key ideas and get inspired to take your analytics to the next level. And don’t forget—our Data Community is the perfect place to keep learning, ask questions, and connect with fellow data enthusiasts!


What’s the Unified Star Schema (USS) All About?

The Unified Star Schema (USS), co-authored by Francesco Puppini and Bill Inmon, is an agile and resilient approach to data warehouse and analytics design. The USS is all about making self-service analytics easier for business users by unifying all your star schemas into a single, powerful structure. Instead of creating siloed data marts, the USS brings everything together, centered around a “Bridge” table that connects all your facts and dimensions.


Key Concepts from the Webinar

  • Joins as Arrows: Every join in your schema should be visualized as an arrow from “many” (foreign key) to “one” (primary key). This keeps your relationships clear and your queries efficient.

  • The Power of UNION: Sometimes, you need to bring together data from different tables. The USS approach uses UNION operations to combine these, making your analytics more flexible.

  • Beyond Kimball: The USS extends classic dimensional modeling (Kimball) by allowing you to answer more questions with less complexity. It’s not just about facts and dimensions anymore—the Bridge table becomes your analytics hub.


How Does USS Work with Data Vault?

Good news: you don’t need to reinvent the wheel! The USS can be built right on top of your existing Data Vault structures. By mapping your Hubs, Links, and Satellites into unified dimensions and facts, you can create a single Bridge table that powers all your analytics. Automation tools (like dbt) make this process even easier, letting you scale from small to massive databases with ease.


Real-World Example

The webinar walked through building a USS on both small and large databases. The process:

  1. Stage your source tables—extract primary and foreign keys, including derived keys.

  2. UNION ALL your staged tables into a single Bridge table.

  3. Automate the process for scalability—especially important when dealing with billions of rows!


The result? You move from a tangled web of tables to a clean, unified structure where business users can explore data without worrying about the underlying complexity.


Why Join the Data Community?

  • Get support: Our forum is full of friendly experts and newcomers alike. Share your USS experiences, ask questions, and learn together!

  • Shape the future: Your feedback and participation help us build a better, more inclusive data community for everyone.


Final Thoughts

The Unified Star Schema is a game-changer for organizations looking to unlock the full potential of their Data Vault. With the right patterns, automation, and community support, you can deliver powerful, self-service analytics that scale with your business.

Ready to unify your analytics? Join the conversation, sign up for our next webinar, and let’s build the future of data together!

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