The data warehousing concept was intended to provide an architectural model for the flow of data from operational systems to decision support environments. The concept attempted to address the various problems associated with this flow, mainly the high costs associated with it. In the absence of a data warehousing architecture, an enormous amount of redundancy was required to support multiple decision support environments. In larger corporations, it was typical for multiple decision support environments to operate independently.

"A data warehousing is defined as a technique for collecting and managing data from varied sources to provide meaningful business insights. It is a blend of technologies and components which aids the strategic use of data.”