[lmm]

> Even if you have an ETL pipeline to an OLAP database/data warehouse/etc, if your core database design is hostile to the analytics/etc then it's going to be a pain no matter how carefully they use it.

Disagree. You don't need a single "core database design". It's fine to have different representations of your data for different purposes, and a transformation pipeline between them; that's the whole idea of CQRS etc.

[FridgeSeal]

Yes I'm not disagreeing there, I'm all for pipelines and CQRS and dedicated databases for dedicated purposes. The point I'm making is that if the original schema is a pain to work with, you can have as many pipelines and databases as you want, getting the actual data you want isn't any less of a pain.

[lmm]

> if the original schema is a pain to work with, you can have as many pipelines and databases as you want, getting the actual data you want isn't any less of a pain.

I don't think that's really true. If the original schema is just something you're ingesting before transforming then it doesn't really matter how bad it is; all you're gonna be doing is scanning over all the tables one way or another.