What is the primary purpose of a Data Warehouse (DW)?

The primary purpose of a Data Warehouse (DW) is to provide cleansed data in a standardized format. Data Warehouses are designed specifically for analytical purposes, meaning they collect, store, and process large volumes of data from various sources after ensuring that the data is accurate, complete, and well-organized. This cleansing process involves removing inconsistencies, duplicates, and errors, allowing organizations to have reliable and consistent data for analysis.

A standardized format ensures that the data can be easily accessed and understood by end-users, which is critical for generating reports, running analytics, and making informed business decisions. Standardization facilitates seamless integration of data from different sources, making it possible to perform complex queries and analyses that lead to actionable insights.

In contrast, other options like conducting real-time transactions, storing application source code, or merely running business intelligence software do not encapsulate the core function of a Data Warehouse, which is focused on preparing data for analysis rather than on operational tasks or application development.