What Is a Data Warehouse?

Data warehousing is one of the hottest topics both in business and in data science. But if you’re new to the field, you’re probably wondering what a data warehouse is, why we need it, and how it works. Don’t worry because in 4 minutes you’ll know the answers to all these questions.

First, let’s start with a definition: what is the meaning of the phrase: ‘Single source of truth’. In information systems theory, the ‘single source of truth’ is the practice of structuring all the best quality data in one place.

But what if you knew that there is one single place where you would always have the single source of information? That would be quite helpful wouldn’t it? Well, a data warehouse exists to fill that need.

So, what is a data warehouse exactly?

It is the place where companies store their valuable data assets, including customer data, sales data, employee data, and so on. In short, a data warehouse is the de facto ‘single source of data truth’ for an organization. It is usually created and used primarily for data reporting and analysis purposes.