The document defines a data warehouse as a subject-oriented, integrated, and time-variant collection of data used to support management decision making. It notes that while databases are transaction-oriented and store online data, data warehouses are designed to analyze historical data from across an entire organization. Data warehouses are used for reporting, analysis, and decision making, and may include departmental data marts that contain only relevant information. The document also references the architecture of a data warehouse but does not provide details.