An Operational Data Store (ODS, a backend chunk of data that needs to be accessed in real time by real people) is NOT a Data Warehouse. It directly conflicts with it. We knew that back in the 90s.


While the dream had been for all applications to run through Narwhal in real time, it turned out that couldn't work. So, they split things into real-time applications like the Call Tool or things on the web. And then they provided a separate way for the Analytics people, who had very specific needs, to get the data in a different form. Then, whatever they came up with was fed back into Narwhal.