Description: Operational Database is the database-of-record, consisting of system-specific reference data and event data belonging to a transaction-update system. It may also contain system control data such as indicators, flags, and counters. The operational database is the source of data for the data warehouse. It contains detailed data used to run the day-to-day operations of the business. The data continually changes as updates are made, and reflect the current value of the last transaction. An operational database contains enterprise data which are up to date and modifiable. In an enterprise data management system, an operational database could be said to be an opposite counterpart of a decision support database which contain non-modifiable data that are extracted for the purpose of statistical analysis. An example use of a decision support database is that it provides data so that the average salary of many different kinds of workers can be determined while the operational database contains the same data which would be used to calculate the amount for pay checks of the workers depending on the number of days that they have reported in any given period of time.
