Short for operational data store, a type of database that serves as an interim area for a data warehouse in order to store time-sensitive operational data that can be accessed quickly and efficiently. In contrast to a data warehouse, which contains large amounts of static data, an ODS contains small amounts of information that is updated through the course of business transactions. An ODS will perform numerous quick and simple queries on small amounts of data, such as acquiring an account balance or finding the status of a customer order, whereas a data warehouse will perform complex queries on large amounts of data. An ODS contains only current operational data while a data warehouse contains both current and historical data.
