Využití metadat při řešení business intelligence aplikací

The diploma thesis focuses on metadata as important means which are able to stop a trend of increasing costs of development, operation and maintenance of decision support systems -- Business Intelligence. The theoretical part of the thesis is elaborated based on such assumption. Its goal is to produce an extensive analysis of the term metadata -- starting with a general definition of the term, then dealing with the categorization and analyzing the issues and benefits. Further on, the term metadata management is discussed as well as metadata repository which is the key element of metadata solutions. The aim of the practical part of the thesis is to analyze the selected commercial metadata management solutions and answer the question whether there is currently a suitable comprehensive solution which would suit the needs of a chosen financial institution, Komerční banka. Furthermore, another question is discussed in the thesis and that is if a suitable solution is to either purchase a commercial solution or decide for own development. The analysis in both parts of the thesis, theoretical and practical, is mainly based on foreign sources, above all articles by specialists in the area of data warehousing, and numerous consultations with an expert on metadata from Komerční banka, Mr. Jiří Omacht.