What is the difference between a database and a data warehouse?

database data-warehouse
Data Man picture Data Man · Aug 5, 2010 · Viewed 201.7k times · Source

What is the difference between a database and a data warehouse?

Aren't they the same thing, or at least written in the same thing (ie. Oracle RDBMS)?

Answer

TheCloudlessSky picture TheCloudlessSky · Aug 5, 2010

Check out this for more information.

From a previous link:

Database

  1. Used for Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) but can be used for other purposes such as Data Warehousing. This records the data from the user for history.
  2. The tables and joins are complex since they are normalized (for RDMS). This is done to reduce redundant data and to save storage space.
  3. Entity – Relational modeling techniques are used for RDMS database design.
  4. Optimized for write operation.
  5. Performance is low for analysis queries.

Data Warehouse

  1. Used for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). This reads the historical data for the Users for business decisions.
  2. The Tables and joins are simple since they are de-normalized. This is done to reduce the response time for analytical queries.
  3. Data – Modeling techniques are used for the Data Warehouse design.
  4. Optimized for read operations.
  5. High performance for analytical queries.
  6. Is usually a Database.

It's important to note as well that Data Warehouses could be sourced from zero to many databases.

Related questions

Difference between Fact table and Dimension table?

When reading a book for business objects, I came across the term- fact table and dimension table. I am trying to understand what is the different between Dimension table and Fact table? I read couple of articles on the internet …

Read More
Database choice for large data volume?

I'm about to start a new project which should have a rather large database. The number of tables will not be large (<15), majority of data (99%) will be contained in one big table, which is almost insert/read only (no …

Read More
What is the actual difference between Data Warehouse & Big Data?

I know what is Data Warehouse & what is Big Data. But I am confused with Data Warehouse Vs Big Data. Both are same with different names or both are different(Conceptually & Physically).

Read More