Back to Glossary
A data warehouse is a centralized system optimized for analytical queries and reporting. It stores structured, cleaned, and modeled data designed specifically for BI and decision-making.
Data warehouses differ from transactional databases in that they prioritize read performance, aggregation, and historical analysis rather than real-time transactions.
Key characteristics include:
Columnar storage
Separation of compute and storage
Support for large datasets
SQL-based querying
Integration with BI tools
Popular cloud data warehouses include Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, and Azure Synapse.
Data warehouses serve as the single source of truth for organizations. Dashboards, reports, and AI models all rely on warehouse data.
A well-designed warehouse enables:
Fast analytics
Consistent reporting
Scalable BI
Reliable forecasting
In modern BI stacks, the data warehouse is the backbone that connects raw data to actionable insights.




