Online Transaction Processing (OLTP):

• Many simple queries that update data
• E.g., bank account transactions
• Focus on data consistency, data protection, throughput (number of queries per sec)

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP):

• Complex query to explore data

• E.g., find total sales listed by product or region

• E.g., find customers that often fall behind in payments

• Focus on complex queries and performance on such queries

• Sometimes read-only

Data Mining:

• Find interesting patterns in data

• Find rules or exceptions to rules

• “tell me something interesting”

Often all of these needed by different people

Use the same system (DBMS) for all three???