Database Management Basics

Database management is the system for managing data that supports an organization’s business operations. It includes data storage, distributing it to users and application programs, modifying it as necessary and monitoring the changes in the data and preventing it from becoming damaged due to unexpected failures. It is one component of a company’s total informational infrastructure which aids in decision making and growth of the company as well as compliance with abtravaux.com laws such as the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

In the 1960s, Charles Bachman and IBM among others developed the first database systems. They evolved into information management systems (IMS) that enabled the storage and retrieve massive amounts of information for a range of applications, from the calculation of inventory to supporting complex financial accounting and human resources functions.

A database consists of tables that arrange data according to a certain arrangement, like one-to-many relationships. It makes use of primary keys to identify records and allows cross-references among tables. Each table contains a set of fields called attributes which provide information about data entities. Relational models, developed by E. F. “TedCodd Codd in the 1970s at IBM as a database, are the most popular database type in the present. The concept is based on normalizing data to make it more user-friendly. It is also simpler to update data because it does not require the changing of various databases.

Most DBMSs can accommodate multiple types of databases through different levels of internal and external organization. The internal level deals with costs, scalability and other operational issues like the physical layout of the database. The external level is the representation of the database on user interfaces and applications. It can include a combination of different external views (based on the various data models) and can also include virtual tables which are generated from generic data in order to improve performance.