Which of the following best describes a data warehouse?

A data warehouse is fundamentally designed as a centralized repository that stores large volumes of historical data collected from various sources. This data is structured and optimized for analysis and reporting purposes. By integrating data from different operational systems, a data warehouse enables organizations to perform complex queries and generate insights that inform business decisions. Unlike daily transaction management tools, which focus on real-time data processing, data warehouses accumulate and organize historic data for long-term analysis. This makes option C the most accurate description, capturing the essence of what a data warehouse does and its primary function in the realm of data analytics.

In contrast, the other options describe functionalities that are not core to the concept of a data warehouse. Transaction management tools focus on processing immediate, operational data, while methods for cleaning data are part of the data preparation process that occurs before data is stored in a warehouse. Applications for creating dashboards primarily serve the visualization aspect of data reporting rather than the storage and integration of the data itself.