Data warehouse - OLAP vs OLTP vs Dimentional model vs Relational model

Question

I kind of know the difference between OLAP and OLTP, and the difference between Dimentional data model vs Relational data model. But how are these 4 terms related with each other? Is OLAP usually "applied" with dimentaional data model design? I'm struggled to link these terms toghether..

Thanks!

Answer 1

In a nutshell, and without going into much detail, it boils down to:

• OLAP: analytical queries. Usually related to Kimball's dimensional model, as well as other data warehousing models (Inmon, for example). It usually fetches large volumes of data, which are then aggregated into a report. Response times are long, usually seconds or even minutes. That's ok, as users are usually ok with waiting for a report to finish rendering.

• OLTP: transactional queries. Usually row by row queries used by applications (fetch profile information for current user; insert 1 row into messages table, etc). Low latency, quick response times, but not suitable for large volumes of data. Often used against 3rd normal form databases.