Glossary
Data Warehouse
A data warehouse is a central store that brings together data from several operational systems in a consistent structure, so it can be analysed together rather than queried separately in each source.
Glossary
A data warehouse is a central store that brings together data from several operational systems in a consistent structure, so it can be analysed together rather than queried separately in each source.
Querying them directly for analysis is slow, competes with live operations, and produces figures that disagree because each system defines its terms differently. A warehouse exists to resolve both problems.

Deciding what a customer is, when an order counts as complete, and which system is authoritative for each field is where most of the effort goes, and those are business decisions dressed as technical ones.
A business with two systems and a handful of recurring questions is often better served by a small number of well-defined reports. Warehouses justify themselves when the number of sources and the number of questions both grow.
Only when several sources and a growing set of questions make separate reporting unworkable. With two systems and a few recurring questions, well-defined reports are cheaper and faster to trust.
Because each defines its terms differently: what counts as an order, when a customer is active, which date is used. Resolving those definitions is the real work, and it is a business decision rather than a technical one.
A data warehouse is a central store that brings together data from several operational systems in a consistent structure, so it can be analysed together rather than queried separately in each source.
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