What Is a Data Warehouse?

By Michelle Knight on October 23, 2017October 25, 2022

A data warehouse is an implementation used to provide decision-support data and aid workers engaged in reporting, query, and analysis. This architectural technology enables organizations to integrate data from a range of sources into common data models. Data warehouses provide insight into operational processes and open new possibilities to leverage data towards making decisions and creating organizational value.

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Other Definitions of a Data Warehouse Include:

A “storage architecture designed to hold data extracted from transaction systems, operational data stores and external sources.” (Gartner)
“Provides clearly defined communications, for a known aggregate set of data, to a well-defined user set, like a travel itinerary.” (Michelle Knight)
“A tool that is: (Kelle O’Neal and John Ladley)
- Structured, processed
- Schema-on-write
- Expensive for large data volumes
- A fixed configuration
- Mature
- Made for business pros.”
A “stable, read only database that combines information from separate systems into one easy-to-access location.” (MIT)
A place “having structured data in rows and columns, requiring security and access controls.” (Harvard Business Review).
“A place like a central distribution and storage warehouse, where individual data marts all come together to reside.” ( Forbes)