Both OLTP and OLAP are online computing systems. Although OLTP and OLAP look alike, they are two different types of systems. OLTP - Online Transaction Processing is a transaction process, it is a system for modifying databases and acquiring, storing, and processing real-time transaction data. And OLAP Online Analytical Processing is analytical processing that uses complex queries to analyze previous data from OLTP systems. It is an online database query response system. It reports to multi-dimensional analytical queries such as financial reporting, forecasting, and many more.
OLAP is widely used in various business intelligence applications, data science applications, and data analytics. You will get to know more about the OLAP while learning about Data science certification and data science courses.
There are variations between OLTP and OLAP. OLTP majorly focuses on inserting, updating, and deleting information from the database and its data transaction will happen through the source of data. While OLAP extracts the data to analyze which leads to making important decisions. It gives the source of data for OLAP and it has a long transaction and more processing time comparatively than OLAP.
OLTP is a system that captures and manages transaction data in a database. Each transaction involves individual database records, which are made up of multiple fields and columns. The processes happen completely in isolation from one another. It processes fast as the databases are read, written, and updated frequently. In case of any failed transaction, embedded system logic ensures data integrity. The transactional data will get stored in relational databases and it ensures the ACID properties for transactions. The data are written and queried at a high pace to prevent a delay in processing. The e-commerce ordering, online bookings, atm transactions, online transactions are managed by OLTP processes.
The different types of OLAP:
● Relational OLAP (ROLAP)
● Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP)
● Hybrid Online Analytical Processing
(HOLAP)
● Desktop OLAP (DOLAP)
● Web OLAP (WOLAP)
● Mobile OLAP
● Spatial OLAP
Features of OLTP
● OLTP manages in real-time.
● The systems adapt the data in the
database.
● OLTP handles the transactions that
are monitored by the ACID properties.
● OLTP Systems stores data in
relational databases.
● OLTP implementation takes less time
in milliseconds.
● OLTP takes the backup frequently with
incremental backups and it uses the traditional DBMS method.
● The OLTP takes the specified
organization of data.
● It takes the updates short and fast,
hence it enhances the productivity of the user.
Examples for OLTP:
● Credit card and Debit card activity
● Online Payments through scanning in
retail stores.
● User types: Clerks,
online shoppers, retail stores, market-oriented audiences.
Benefits of OLTP
● It makes our day-to-day transactions
easy in organizations.
● It increases the customer base and
simplifies the individual processes.
Disadvantages of OLTP
● Hardware failure can impact online
transactions.
● The system of OLTP is complicated as
it is accessed by multiple users and it alters the data at the same time.
OLAP is used in
complex queries in a large amount of historical data, aggregated from OLTP and
other sources. It is majorly used in data mining, data analytics, and business
intelligence projects. OLAP emphasizes response time to these complex questions.
Each query involves one or more columns of aggregated data from multiple rows.
OLAP databases and data warehouses provide analysts and decision-makers with
the ability to use custom reporting tools to turn data into insights. If any
query fails in OLAP, it will not get interrupted or delay the transaction
processing for customers. But it can delay the impact of the accuracy of
business intelligence insights.
Characteristics of OLAP
● OLAP deals with old data.
● OLAP systems will not make any
changes to the data.
● OLAP stores data in the
multidimensional form in data warehouses.
● OLAP is mainly used for data analysis
purposes.
● OLAP data will not be modified.
● OLAP will not take regular backups,
the data are reloaded as a recovery method. It processes the data through
online analysis and data retrieval.
● The OLAP uses the data warehouse
method.
● It takes a long time to refresh the
data with scheduled batches. It enhances the productivity of business analysts.
Examples for OLAP:
● Financial performance reports
● Marketing leads trends
● Customers: Managers, Management,
CEOs, Customer-oriented process.
Benefits of OLAP
● It is used widely in businesses in a
single multipurpose platform for planning, budgeting, forecasting, and
analyzing.
● It keeps the information and
calculations consistent.
● It gives sufficient security measures
to protect confidential data.
Disadvantages of OLAP
● OLAP uses the traditional tools which
are complicated modeling procedures. Hence the maintenance of OLAP is dependent
on IT Professionals.
● It will not be possible to
collaborate with multiple departments.
Differences between OLTP
and OLAP
● OLTP is an online transaction system
and OLTP is an analysis system.
● OLTP transactional data is the source
for OLTP, and various OLTPs databases become the source of data for OLAP.
● OLTP's main operations insert, update
and delete and OLAPs mainly work on the extraction of multidimensional data for
analysis.
● OLTP has short but frequent
transactions, OLAP has long and less frequent transactions.
● OLAP consumes more time for
processing the transaction if you consider OLAP has a long endless frequent
transactions.
● OLAP queries are more complex
concerning OLTP.
● OLTP databases are needed to be
normalized and the OLAP database need not be normalized.
How ETL works on OLTP and OLAP
Extract, Transform and Load(ETL) connects OLTP and OLAP. The system takes data from OLTP databases through ETL. The ETL tool will collect the data and send it to OLAP data warehouses, where it is queried through analysis. later the business intelligence tools will obtain the information.
OLTP tracks ongoing business activities in
real-time. If you are looking for a centralized platform for business
intelligence, OLAP can help you with extracting value from huge amounts of
data. Typically, you can find OLTP
systems in every system interacting with end-users such as customers. The OLTP
systems are business- specific and it improves the business process. On the
other hand, OLAP is used in the business branch for trend analysis, customer
behavior. It is data-modeling knowledge and it is used to evaluate the data. In
many cases, it collaborates with various business units.
