Data Warehouse / Transaction Database

Data Warehouse
Analytics, reporting, big data.
Data collected and normalized from many sources.
Bulk write operations typically on a predetermined batch schedule.
De-normalized schemas, such as the Star schema or Snowflake schema.
Optimized for simplicity of access and high-speed query performance using columnar storage.
Optimized to minimize I/O and maximize data throughput.

Transactional Database
Transaction processing
Data captured as-is from a single source, such as a transactional system
Optimized for continuous write operations as new data is available to maximize transaction throughput
Highly normalized, static schemas
Optimized for high throughout write operations to a single row-oriented physical block
High volumes of small read operations