analytics-dictionary / term / data infrastructure

OLTP

OLTP (online transaction processing) databases are built to run applications, handling many small reads and writes quickly.

Written by Reflective Data experts · updated Oct 5, 2026

Systems like the database behind a shop or a CRM are OLTP. They are poor at large analytical queries, which is why data is replicated to a warehouse for analysis.

Running heavy reports directly on an OLTP database can slow the application.

Change data capture (CDC)Data replication OLAP

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