Operational Data

Operational Data is data whose primary purpose is to remember things — to store and retrieve information needed for day-to-day operations.

Characteristics

• Transactional: Supports real-time business operations
• Current state: Represents the current state of the system
• High frequency: Frequently accessed and updated
• Structured: Typically organized in normalized schemas
• Low latency: Requires fast read/write access

Examples

• Customer records in a CRM
• Inventory levels in an e-commerce system
• User accounts and authentication data
• Order processing data
• Financial transaction records

Related Concepts

• [[Analytical Data]] — data for decision-making
• [[Analytically Operational Data]] — automated decision support
• [[ELT (Extract - Load - Transform)]] — data processing approach
• [[Architecture Decision (AD)]]

Definition based on data architecture practice.