Do BI systems fall into exactly two categories — reporting and data warehousing — or is data warehousing an infrastructure separate from reporting/analytics?

Introduction / Context:
This question distinguishes BI capabilities from data platform architecture. BI encompasses reporting, dashboards, OLAP, self-service discovery, and sometimes predictive analytics. A data warehouse is the back-end repository supporting BI, not a category parallel to it.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• BI front-end: reports, dashboards, ad-hoc query, OLAP, data exploration.
• Data warehouse: integrated, historical, subject-oriented store optimized for analytics.
• Additional components: ETL/ELT, semantic layer, data governance, ML services.

Concept / Approach:
Placing “data warehousing” as a BI category conflates presentation with storage. A more accurate split is reporting/OLAP versus data mining/advanced analytics on top of a warehouse or lakehouse. Therefore, the two-category claim is incorrect.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Identify BI user-facing functions (reporting, OLAP, dashboards).Identify platform layer (warehouse, data marts, ETL/ELT).Compare with the statement claiming only “reporting” and “data warehousing.”Conclude the statement is invalid because it mixes functional and infrastructural layers.

Verification / Alternative check:
Reference typical BI reference architectures showing separate presentation, semantic, and storage layers.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Organization size, schema design, or ETL toggles do not redefine what BI categories are.

Common Pitfalls:
Using “BI” and “data warehouse” interchangeably; overlooking analytics beyond static reporting.

Final Answer:
Invalid statement — warehousing is infrastructure; BI also includes analytics