OLTP and OLAP — what do the abbreviations mean, what are the differences, including storage architectures?

OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) — these are systems for processing transactions in real time. They are optimized for fast execution of a large number of short operations, such as inserts, updates, and deletes. OLTP storage systems typically have a normalized data structure to minimize redundancy and ensure integrity.

OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) — systems for analyzing large volumes of data, supporting business analytics and decision-making. OLAP warehouses are oriented towards complex queries, aggregations, and summary reports. Data in OLAP is often denormalized and organized into multidimensional cubes or star schemas to accelerate analytical queries.

Differences in architecture:

• OLTP: normalized databases, high transaction speed, support for ACID.
• OLAP: denormalized structures, optimized for reading and analysis, often use separate data warehouses.

Example: banking system — OLTP processes customer operations (transfers, payments), OLAP analyzes data to identify trends and generate reports.