Data Warehouse vs Database: What's the Difference?
High - Level definition
Database stores real-time information which represents some elements of organization or business. It is designed to store, retrieve, and process data for a specific task. It is also a building block of your data solution. The major task of database is to handle an enormous volume of simple queries very quickly.
Data Warehouse is an information system which stores huge amounts of historical data from many different sources within organization or business. It is designed to organize, analyze, and present data in different formats and different forms for specific user and purpose. Data Warehouse eases the reporting process - created from complex queries - for decision making and forecasting.
Comparison
Use Case Example
Database
Database processes the day-to-day transactions in business or organization. Example of Database implementation:
- Store call records, monthly bills, and balance maintenance for telecommunications industries
- Store customer information and related account transactions for banking
- Store information related stock, sales, and purchased products for retail
- Supply chain data management and tracking production of items and inventories for manufacturing
- Register new patients in hospital
- Airline online booking system and schedule information
Data Warehouse
Data Warehouse offers reporting and analysis that empowered businesses or organizations to make more thoughtful decisions. It can be used to identify trends and learn what drives success. Some examples of Data Warehouse applications include:
- Determine profitable customer segments for marketing campaigns and product promotions
- Predict customer churn rate using the last five years of sales data
- Forecast supply and demand to decide which areas to focus on next production for manufacture
- Finding out which products are best suited for the market
- Analyze data patterns, customer trends and behaviors, and track market movement quickly for any industries (airline, insurance, retail)
- Create patient's treatment reports for healthcare sector