In trying to obtain a general understanding of how a user may get to a database through the internet, we examine how data may be grouped, what ASP is and how a three tier architecture ties into all of these.
             Data is the heart of databases; without it databases don't exist. There are two different types of collections of data: Data Warehouse and Data Mart. These two can be confusing. By their name, it sounds as if they are almost the same thing, but they aren't. They are very different.
             Data Mart is the collection of data geared towards users working in the same area or division of a business. It is "designed to suit the immediate needs of a department" (Inmon, 1999). The data is displayed in a user friendly environment. The data mart may be fed from a data warehouse or it can have its own data independently. The most identifying characteristic of a data mart is that it contains data used for a specific group with something in common, i.e., accounting department, personnel department, etc. Data Warehouse is the opposite.
             Data Warehouse is the collection of data targeted to the needs of the entire organization as a whole. This data is typically used to make important business decisions. It collects all or most of the data from the different divisions of an organization. Data marts contain summarized data, data warehouse contain detailed information (Inmon, 1999). This makes sense if the data warehouse is used in business analysis and decision making. In essence, if they are linked, a data mart can be viewed as a part of a whole (data warehouse) and a data warehouse as the whole of the different parts (data marts). This makes it easy to better understand how they can relate, however, you must be aware that these two are not always linked. Data marts can run independently of a data warehouse and they can have different set ups and field descriptions. Regardless of wher
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