What are major differences between data warehousing and a relational database?

Data warehouse database

Designed for analysis of business measures by categories and attributes

Optimized for bulk loads and large, complex, unpredictable queries that access many rows per table.

Loaded with consistent, valid data; requires no real time validation

Supports few concurrent users relative to OLTP

OLTP database

Designed for real time business operations.

Optimized for a common set of transactions, usually adding or retrieving a single row at a time per table.

Optimized for validation of incoming data during transactions; uses validation data tables.

Supports thousands of concurrent users.