There are basically two types of data marts. That is, there are data marts that are not dependent on a data warehouse called independent data marts, and those that are dependent on a data warehouse called dependent data marts.

But of late, other formats such as the federated or hybrid data mart have emerged as a result of combining the two approaches of independent and dependent data marts. “A company can build many data marts, one for each subset of data. That could add complexity but can also improve query performance and provide faster response times,” (Westerman, 2001).


References:

Simon, Alan, (1998). 90 Days to the Data Mart.

Westerman, Paul (2001). Data warehousing: using the Wal-Mart model