Data Warehouse

Is a storage space for data tables. It is not a software program. Is accessible through desktop tools. Gives users access to in-depth information on a variety of University data.

A database warehouse is one large Data Repository of all business related information including all historical data of the business organization implementing the data warehouse.

Some of the key components of data warehousing are Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Data Mining (DM).

In all cases, organizations use data warehousing to gain a competitive advantage, support for decision making processes through comprehensive data analysis.

A data warehouse is a place where data is stored for archival purposes, analysis purposes and security purposes.

Usually a data warehouse is either a single computer or many computers (servers) tied together to create one giant computer system.

Data can consist of raw data or formatted data and can be on various types of topics including an organization's sales, salaries, operational data, summaries of data including reports, copies of data, human resource data, inventory data, external data to provide simulations and analysis, etc.

Besides being a store house for large amounts of data, they must possess systems in place that make it easy to access the data and use it in day to day operations.

A data warehouse is sometimes said to be a major part in a decision support system.

A way for an organization to use data to come up with facts, trends or relationships that can help them make effective decisions or create effective strategies to accomplish their goals. 

There are many different models of data warehouses including Online Transaction Processing which is a warehouse built for speed and ease of use.

Another type of data warehouse is called Online Analytical processing, this type of warehouse is more difficult to use and adds an extra step of analysis within the data.