Blackbaud Data Warehouse: Updated Deplyment Requirements

Trit Mulligan

In our Q1 2017 roadmap call, we mentioned a modification to our Blackbaud CRM System Requirements.  This change, specifically, was the addition of the Blackbaud Data Warehouse (BBDW) as a deployment requirement.  We had previously made mention of this at BBCON and in prior customer communication, but we have received feedback that this s a topic that requires further explanation, so we are providing some more detail in this post.  

The requirement reads:
Existing and future Blackbaud CRM functionality requires the presence of the BBDW. Additionally, performance defects in the OLTP database with a commercially-viable alternative in the BBDW will not be addressed. This does not limit your organization from also using an additional data warehouse.

What this means is that you still have a choice when it comes to deploying the BBDW, however as we continue to build out new functionality that is read-intensive and does not require real-time data, we will build that functionality to use the BBDW. The motivation behind this requirement is your continued success with Blackbaud CRM, and part of that success will involve us making strategic performance decisions that in some cases will require the existence of the BBDW.  Existing examples of this is are the Giving List and rolling date filters in Query.  An upcoming example of this might be SKY Reporting (TBD).   

 
We fully understand that in most cases it is not completely effortless for our self-hosted customers to deploy the BBDW, however we are diligently working to lessen that burden. An existing example of that is the implementation of database snapshots to use during the ETL, which was released in 4.0 SP11. An upcoming example that we're working on is the ability to run pre-defined sets of SSIS packages. The end goal of all of this work is to enable faster, more reliable, and more frequent BBDW refreshes. Requiring the deployment of the BBDW is the first step in that direction, because it allows us to monitor ETL health today (for Hosted clients) and gives us all the opportunity to look at the BBDW with a fresh perspective, and see how much value has been added to it over the past three years. 

 
We understand that since they exist as separate installers today, we cannot, nor would we want to force clients to actually deploy the BBDW, but we want to set the expectation that functionality will require its existence early enough that you feel prepared with the direction we are going.