OLTP is a computing acronym for on-line transaction processing.This is a class of program that facilitates and manages transaction-oriented
applications, typically for data entry and retrieval in a number of industries, including banking,
airlines, mailorder, supermarkets, and manufacturing. Probably the longest- and most widely-installed OLTP product is IBM's CICS
(Customer Information Control System, pronounced "kicks").
Today's online transaction processing increasingly requires support for transactions that span a network--or even more than one company. For this reason, new OLTP software uses client/server processing and brokering software
that allows transactions to run on different computer platforms in a network.
As of 2004, Service Oriented Architecture and Web services are the
area where most new OLTP development is taking place.
