Operational Database (ODB)

An operational database is a database that stores data inside of an enterprise. They can contain things like payroll records, customer information and employee data. They are critical to data warehousing and business analytics operations.

The key characteristic of operational databases is their orientation toward real-time operations, compared with conventional databases that rely on batch processing. With operational databases, records can be added, removed and modified in real time. Operational database management systems can be based on SQL but a growing number are using NoSQL and nonstructured data.