Traditionally, data warehouse applications have been based on drawing strategic advantage from the data. Strategic queries are often complex, sometimes long-running, usually broad in scope. The Vantage parallel architecture supports these types of queries by spreading the work across all of the parallel units and nodes in the configuration.
As data warehouse users require more versatility out of their data, they are supplementing their strategic focus with a tactical component. Today, increasing numbers of Vantage users are introducing their quick turnaround tactical queries alongside the classic strategic queries in their Teradata system.
The name tactical query is given to a certain category of work that is short, highly tuned, and focused on more operational decision-making. This class of queries is sometimes categorized under the initialism OLCP, which stands for Online Complex Processing. Tactical queries are similar to classical online transaction processing (OLTP), in that both are composed of short, often direct-access queries, coming with defined response time requirements.
OLTP, however, is more focused on bookkeeping activities and recording operational events, while tactical queries are more focused on decision-making, recording selections or choices made. OLTP generally comes with a higher ratio or writes compared to reads, while tactical queries tend to be more read intensive. OLTP usually has a departmental view and a very narrow context, while tactical queries are often more enterprise-wide. With OLTP queries, short latency is always critical. Tactical queries, on the other hand, are designed for response time requirements that can vary from subsecond up to 10 or 20 seconds or more.