Data
Data warehouse
Also called
- Analytics database
- Lakehouse
Operational databases are tuned to write one record quickly. Analytical questions read millions of records and aggregate them. Running the second kind of query against the first kind of database is how a reporting request takes down the application.
A warehouse separates the two. Data is copied in on a schedule, reshaped into models that answer business questions, and queried without touching production.
The hard part is not the database. It is agreeing what a customer is, when revenue is recognized and which of four systems is authoritative — definitional work that surfaces the moment two departments compare numbers.
Without one, every question that spans two systems becomes a manual export, and no two people arrive at the same figure.
Commonly misunderstood
What people get wrong
The claim
“We just need a dashboard.”
What is actually true
A dashboard on ungoverned data is a faster way to distribute disagreement. The modeling underneath is the deliverable; the dashboard is the window.
Where this comes up
Services where it matters
Related terms
Next step
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