| Characteristic | OLAP | OLTP |
| Focus | Information | Operations |
| Workload | Ad hoc queries | Predefined operations |
| Data modification | Regularly updated by ETL processes | DML |
| Key criterias | | Low insert/query response time - high data consistency in parallel (many sessions) operation - high trx/time |
| Schema design | Denormalized (star schema) for better query performance | Normalized to ensure data consistency |
| Data storage format | column format | row format |
| Typical operations | A select statement queries lots of rows (select sum …) | Single or few records |
| Historical data | Yes | Maybe |
| Data used for and managed by | CxO, Data Analysts | Clerks, Managers |
| Backups | Usually less important | Very important, ongoing |