What's the workload difference between tactical and strategic queries?

The strategic query is used to understand and determine long-term business strategies. Because the answer set from a strategic query probably is important to long-term (rather than short-term) business goals, the emphasis is on the answer set and not how long it takes to execute. These queries traverse dense data-data that doesn't necessarily include current or up-to-the-moment information.

The tactical query is used to understand and respond to short-term business requirements and to drive an immediate action. Because the answer set from a tactical query is immediately important to short-term business requirements, the emphasis is on how long it takes for the query to execute. The answer set is expected to address a current business need, so the currency of the data becomes important. These queries typically are "smaller" or less intensive than strategic queries.

The workload difference between these two types of queries involves issues such as:

Data updates: Tactical queries require fresher data, so data update frequencies become important and are increased. The use of utilities such as TPump to load data increases. The data freshness requirements of tactical queries change the data update strategies needed and used for strategic queries. Service level agreements generally are attached to the ability to provide data freshness.

Performance: The answer sets for tactical queries serve an immediate need, so response time is critical. Service level agreements generally are attached to the performance and response time of these queries. Tools such as Priority Scheduler and advanced indexing are used to support high performance.

Workload management: In a strictly strategic environment, the frequency of data freshness is less an issue so data can be refreshed at scheduled times that isolates the update from query execution. As the environment becomes more tactical, the "isolation" time disappears. The workload in an environment that includes tactical queries tends to be much more mixed, involving frequent updates, different types of data access, different types of tactical queries and, quite often, strategic queries executing in conjunction with each other. Again, tools such as Priority Scheduler can help manage the workload and ensure service level agreements.