Difference Between Data Warehouse and

Database
An organization deals with various data each day. They have to store and analyze
various sets of previous data to maintain records and improve the business. But
wait! For all these, they need a database and a data warehouse. So which data has
what characteristics and what are the key differences between Data Warehouse
and Database? You will find it in this blog.
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A database consists of a collection of data. A database helps an organization carry out its basic functions. On the

other hand, a data warehouse is a data reporting and analysis system. Provides high performance for analytical

queries. Typically, the management of an organization uses a data warehouse.

So we are going to guide you right from the basics and will discuss data warehouse vs database & the topics in detail

which are mentioned below:

 What is a Data Warehouse?

 What is a Database?

 Characteristics of Data Warehouse and Database

 Data Warehouse vs Database: Differences

 Applications of Data Warehouse and Database

 Data Warehouse and Database: Which is better and why?

  Conclusion

Check this video on the Data Warehouse tutorial for a better understanding of Data Warehouse Concepts

What is a Data Warehouse?

A Data Warehouse is a storage of a large amount of operational data that documents the everyday operation of an

organization, gathered from multiple sources stored under a unified schema at a single site. Various operational data

are analyzed and connected in the data warehouse which is collected from different sources. Data warehousing is not

just the data in the data warehouse, but also the configuration and tools to collect the queries and analyze the

information also.

 The main concept behind data warehousing is that data stored for business can most effectively be accessed by

separating it from data in the operational system.

 To execute complex analytical queries simply on large compound datasets, data warehouses are designed.

What is a Database?

A database is a systematic or organized set of related information stored so that it can be easily accessed, retrieved,

maintained, and updated. You can organize data in table format and also in rows and columns in a database. With the

help of data indexing, it becomes easy to retrieve any data whenever needed. All data is stored here as a library that

stores different types of books in different genres. So think of the data like books in a library.

 On the World Wide Web, various sites are database driven.

 A database engine is used to make data accessible to users through a program.

 Oracle Database, SQL Server, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and MySQL are examples of various databases.

 These modern databases are managed by Database Management System(DBMS).

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interviews.

Characteristics of Data Warehouse and Database

Data Warehouse plays a very important role for an organization in analyzing their businesses because of the various

characteristics, which are mentioned below:

Characteristics of Data Warehouse:

Subject Oriented

The data warehouse is a subject-oriented database, which supports the different business needs of individual

departments’ specific users.

It intends to deal with any particular subject that is defined in a good manner.

Integrated database

A data warehouse is a consolidated database that helps collect and consolidate data from various database sources.

There are a limited number of methods for issues such as naming conventions, conflicts, units of measure, and

inconsistent values.

Time Variant

A data warehouse is a time-varying database that supports organizational management that analyzes business data

and compares it against various time periods, such as yearly, quarterly, or specific dates.

There are structured time limits between large data sets that are maintained for all online transaction processes.

Non Volatile

A data warehouse is a non-volatile database.

Data stored in the data warehouse cannot be changed or modified.

Read-only mode is enabled so you can read data from your data warehouse and analyze it according to your

organization’s needs.

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From the above points, you got to understand the various characteristics of data warehouses. Now, you will study the

various characteristics of databases, these characteristics include:

Characteristics of Databases

Real World Entity

Modern databases are more realistic and use physical entities to design their architecture as well as behavioral

attributes.

Relational-based tables

Database management system (DBMS) allows you to establish positions and relationships between tables.

The user understands the database structure just by looking at the table names.

Less Redundancy

These days databases have no redundancy.

As because they follow normalization rules, it separates relationships when an attribute is too high.

Security

Databases have security features such as multiple views that provide some level of security where users cannot

access other users’ data.

It has security features that allow users to have different views with different features.

Multi-user and Concurrent access

It supports multi-user environments and allows users to access or modify data in parallel.

Data Warehouse vs Database: Differences

Data Warehouse Database

Data warehouse stores historic data. The database stores real-time data.
Data are stored based on Extract, Data are collected based on Application usage.
Transform and Load processes.
Data warehouse model types are:Virtual Database model types are:Hierarchical database
warehouseData MartEnterprise data modelRelational modelNetwork modelEntity-
warehouse relationship modelDocument modelStar SchemaObject-
oriented database modelEntity attribute value model
The data warehouse is a central platform The database is a traditional method of storing data in
for data storage that helps businesses to tables, columns, and rows, which allows data queries
collect and integrate data from various and processing easily.
operational sources.
Data warehouses are used for analyzing Databases are used for capturing data, storing data, and
data and performance reporting. supporting operational processes.
Data must be integrated and balanced Data is balanced within the scope of the process.
from multiple processes.
Data is updated in a scheduled manner. Data is updated when a transaction occurs.
The data warehouse consumes data from The database is designed to be transactional and they
all the databases and creates an optimized are not designed to perform data analytics.
layer to perform data analytics.
Schema is done or extracted from import. Databases are structured with a defined schema.

Data Warehouse and Database: Which is better and why?

After all this discussion, we can say that database helps the company to carry out its core activities while the data

warehouse helps the company to analyze its historical records.

Companies choose one of them based on their business needs. Each has features that support business performance

or the ability to understand the needs of users.

Each has specific characteristics that help organizations overcome obstacles by using both solutions.

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