Data Redistribution is the process of moving data replicates from one data site to another to meet business needs. It is a process that constantly balances data needs, data volumes, data usage, and the physical operating environment.

It is not uncommon to have a data warehouse serving a company but the data warehouse also constantly interacts with other data sources. In many cases when a company is so large that it not only has several departments spread out in several floors of an office building but also has several branches spread out across different locations as well, it is a good idea to break up the data within the warehouse.

These data can be data replications which are being moved from data site representing the branch or departmental data into another data. The advantage of having this set up, which is the very essence of data redistribution, is that specific data needs can be near the data user department and so travel can be greatly reduced as well as the need for higher networking resources.

Also, since the processing is spread across many servers, there will be a balance of load and the system can be made sure that no central server is taking a very toll to the point of breaking down and halting the whole business operation which relies on data and information.

Data Redistribution is often associated with load balancing. In computer networking, load balancing is a technique which is usually performed by load balancer computers and used to spread processing job among many computers, processes, hard disks or other IT resources so that the whole system can get optimal utilization of resource while decreasing computer time.

With data redistribution coupled with load balancing technique, processes which are distributed and communication related activities across the network can be guaranteed that no single device within the system will be overwhelmed by a task.

Data redistribution has become a very common process in enterprise data warehousing. There are several very broad types of data redistribution methods used in the business sector today:

Redistribution within financial institution – this type of data redistribution is more focused on the management and control of data usage within an entity (in this case, any business organization) which is authorized to receive and distribute business related data where the company has full intention of complying with data policies.

Redistribution through web sites – This type of data redistribution is focused on control and distribution of business related data among different entities which may either be looking to avoid paying for the redistribution license fees (data pirating) or where the business data is secondary component of any application.

Redistribution through electronic trading engines – This type of data redistribution is focused on delivery of business related data electronic trading software vendors. This is in cases where exchanges have tended to waive fees to encourage the penetration of such systems.

Redistribution via derived data – This type of data redistribution is focused the definition of the fine line separating core business data and data whose value is derived through mathematical formulas.

Data warehouses which implement data redistributions should make sure that the existing network infrastructure can handle the very large volume of data that travels across the network on a regular basis. A data redistribution software manager should also be installed to monitor the constant sharing of data replicates and make sure that data integrity is maintained all the time.

This software regularly communicates with each data site, following activities of the data a making sure that everything works smoothly as different servers process data replicates before they are aggregates into a reporting function for final use by the business organization.