DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Database Management System

Data:

Data is nothing but facts and statistics stored or free flowing over a network, generally it's raw
and unprocessed. For example: When you visit any website, they might store you IP address, that
is data, in return they might add a cookie in your browser, marking you that you visited the
website, that is data, your name, it's data, your age, it's data.

Data becomes information when it is processed, turning it into something meaningful.

Like, based on the cookie data saved on user's browser, if a website can analyze that generally
men of age 20-25 visit us more, that is information, derived from the data collected.

Database:

A Database is a collection of related data organized in a way that data can be easily accessed,
managed and updated. Database can be software based or hardware based, with one sole
purpose, storing data.

During early computer days, data was collected and stored on tapes, which were mostly
write-only, which means once data is stored on it, it can never be read again. They were slow and
bulky, and soon computer scientists realized that they needed a better solution to this problem.

Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle was amongst the first few, who realized the need
for a software based Database Management System.

Database Management System:

A database management system (DBMS) is a collection of programs that enables you to

store, modify, and extract information from a database. A DBMS generally manipulates the data
itself, the data format, field names, record structure and file structure. It also defines rules to
validate and manipulate this data. A DBMS relieves users of framing programs for data
maintenance. DBMS also provides protection and security to the databases. It also maintains data
consistency in case of multiple users.

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Background of Database Management System:

The term DBMS has been around since the 1960s when IBM developed the first DBMS
model called an Information Management System (IMS), in which data were stored in a
computer in a hierarchical tree structure. Individual pieces of data were connected only between
parent and child records.

The next generation of databases were network DBMS systems, which tried to solve
some of the limitations of the hierarchical design by incorporating a one-to-many relationship
between data. This took us into the 1970s when IBM's Edgar F. Codd established the relational
database model, the precursor to that we know today.

Database Design Strategies:

There are two approaches for developing any database, the top-down method and the
bottom-up method. While these approaches appear radically different, they share the common
goal of utilizing a system by describing all of the interaction between the processes.

1. Top-Down Design Method:

The top-down design method starts from the general and moves to the specific. In other
words, you start with a general idea of what is needed for the system and then work your way
down to the more specific details of how the system will interact. This process involves the
identification of different entity types and the definition of each entity’s attributes.

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2. Bottom-Up Design Method:

The bottom-up approach begins with the specific details and moves up to the general.
This is done by first identifying the data elements (items) and then grouping them together in
data sets. In other words, this method first identifies the attributes, and then groups them to form
entities.

Two general approaches (top – down and bottom – up) to the design of the databases can
be heavily influenced by factors like scope, size of the system, the organizations management
style, and the organizations structure. Depending on such factors, the design of the database
might use two very different approaches, centralized design and decentralized design.

3. Centralized Design:

Centralized design is most productive when the data component is composed of a

moderately small number of objects and procedures. The design can be carried out and
represented in a somewhat simple database. Centralized design is typical of a simple or small
database and can be successfully done by a single database administrator or by a small design
team. This person or team will define the problems, create the conceptual design, verify the
conceptual design with the user views, and define system processes and data constraints to
ensure that the design complies with the organizations goals. That being said, the centralized
design is not limited to small companies. Even large companies can operate within the simple
database environment.

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4. Decentralized Design:

Decentralized design might best be used when the data component of the system has a
large number of entities and complex relations upon which complex operations are performed.
This is also likely to be used when the problem itself is spread across many operational sites and
the elements are a subset of the entire data set. In large and complex projects a team of carefully
selected designers are employed to get the job done. This is commonly accomplished by several
teams that work on different subsets or modules of the system. Conceptual models are created by
these teams and compared to the user views, processes, and constraints for each module. Once all
the teams have completed their modules they are all put aggregated into one large conceptual
model.

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