Simply speaking, a data warehouse is a repository of information from different databases which can be queried by the users. One differentiator of data in the data warehouse, is that data is normalized. Data normalizing can be defined as removing redundant data. Once database is normalized, data can be extracted, refined and used for analysis. Data mining on the other hand is a relatively new concept. Data mining refers
to finding relationships / correlations in the data warehouse. These correlations are technically referred to as "metadata" i.e. data about data.

Data mining is used heavily nowdays by many industries to find out trends, relationships etc among data. Metadata which is generated using data mining is extracted and stored in another system called a "Data
Mart". Data Mart is nothing but a highly secured storage space for data. Metadata is also incorporated in the original database for further querying. Normally, in the CISA exam, questions on databases are on the
conceptual side. Any of the above three concepts which I discussed, Data warehousing, Data mining, and Data mart can be asked giving choices. Once a candidate knows the concept, it is very easy to answer the question.

Related CISA Exam Concepts

Cyclic Redundancy Check
Application Level Gateway
Return on Security Investment ROSI
Recovery Time Objectives RTO