What is the main purpose of a data warehouse?

The main purpose of a data warehouse is to support analytical reporting and decision making. Data warehouses are designed to consolidate data from various sources into a central repository, allowing businesses to perform complex queries and analyses. This centralized data helps organizations identify trends, generate reports, and make informed decisions based on historical and current data.

A key characteristic of data warehouses is their capability to handle large volumes of data and facilitate business intelligence activities. They are optimized for read operations, which means that they provide fast access to data that is structured in a way conducive to analysis. By doing so, they empower decision-makers with the insights necessary for strategic planning and performance monitoring.

The other options focus on different aspects of data management or system performance but do not encapsulate the primary role of a data warehouse. For instance, while enhancing system performance can be a benefit of using a data warehouse, it is not its main purpose. Similarly, facilitating transaction processing is more aligned with operational databases, whereas storing operational data is also not the focus of a data warehouse, which typically holds historical data for analysis rather than real-time operational data.