This note deals with an architectural view upon data mining. It aims to indicate the specific contribution that data mining gives when business solutions are sought for.
Data mining gives answers to business questions.
Other approaches are also available, like ad hoc queries, multidimensional models and decision support systems. Each approach has its own strong points and accompanied weaknesses. We will shortly describe such approaches. Moreover we will indicate the location of data mining. Data mining is loosely related to data warehousing.