OLAP vs OLTP

OLPT and OLAP are complementing technologies. You can't live without OLTP: it runs your business day by day. So, using getting strategic information from OLTP is usually first “quick and dirty” approach, but can become limiting later.

This post explores key differences between two technologies.

OLTP stands for On Line Transaction Processing and is a data modeling approach typically used to facilitate and manage usual business applications. Most of applications you see and use are OLTP based.

OLAP stands for On Line Analytic Processing and is an approach to answer multi-dimensional queries. OLAP was conceived for Management Information Systems and Decision Support Systems but is still widely underused: every day I see too much people making out business intelligence from OLTP data!

With the constant growth of data analysis and business intelligence applications (now even in small business) understanding OLAP nuances and benefits is a must if you want provide valid and useful analytics to management.

The following table summarized main differences between OLPT and OLAP:

	OLTP	OLAP
Application	Operational: ERP, CRM, legacy apps, ...	Management Information System, Decision Support System
Typical users	Staff	Managers, Executives
Horizon	Weeks, Months	Years
Refresh	Immediate	Periodic
Data model	Entity-relationship	Multi-dimensional
Schema	Normalized	Star
Emphasis	Update	Retrieval