What is a Database?

A database is a collection of related data which represents some aspect of the real world.
A database system is designed to be built and populated with data for a certain task.

What is DBMS?
Database Management System (DBMS) is a software for storing and retrieving users'
data while considering appropriate security measures. It consists of a group of programs
which manipulate the database. The DBMS accepts the request for data from an
application and instructs the operating system to provide the specific data. In large
systems, a DBMS helps users and other third-party software to store and retrieve data.

DBMS allows users to create their own databases as per their requirement. The term
“DBMS” includes the user of the database and other application programs. It provides an
interface between the data and the software application.

Topics
• History of DBMS
• Characteristics of Database Management System
• DBMS vs. Flat File
• Users in a DBMS environment
• Popular DBMS Software
• Application of DBMS
• Types of DBMS
• Advantages of DBMS
• Disadvantage of DBMS
• When not to use a DBMS system?

Let us see a simple example of a university database. This database is maintaining

information concerning students, courses, and grades in a university environment. The
database is organized as five files:

• The STUDENT file stores data of each student

• The COURSE file stores contain data on each course.
• The SECTION stores the information about sections in a particular course.
• The GRADE file stores the grades which students receive in the various sections
• The TUTOR file contains information about each professor.

To define a database system:

 • We need to specify the structure of the records of each file by defining the different
types of data elements to be stored in each record.
• We can also use a coding scheme to represent the values of a data item.
• Basically, your Database will have 5 tables with a foreign key defined amongst the
various tables.

History of DBMS
Here, are the important landmarks from the history:

• 1960 - Charles Bachman designed first DBMS system

• 1970 - Codd introduced IBM'S Information Management System (IMS)
• 1976- Peter Chen coined and defined the Entity-relationship model also know as
the ER model
• 1980 - Relational Model becomes a widely accepted database component
• 1985- Object-oriented DBMS develops.
• 1990s- Incorporation of object-orientation in relational DBMS.
• 1991- Microsoft ships MS access, a personal DBMS and that displaces all other
personal DBMS products.
• 1995: First Internet database applications
• 1997: XML applied to database processing. Many vendors begin to integrate XML
into DBMS products.

Characteristics of Database Management System

• Provides security and removes redundancy
• Self-describing nature of a database system
• Insulation between programs and data abstraction
• Support of multiple views of the data
• Sharing of data and multiuser transaction processing
• DBMS allows entities and relations among them to form tables.
• It follows the ACID concept (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability).
• DBMS supports multi-user environment that allows users to access and
manipulate data in parallel.

DBMS vs. Flat File

DBMS Flat File Management System

Multi-user access It does not support multi-user access

 Design to fulfill the need for small and It is only limited to smaller DBMS system.
large businesses

Remove redundancy and Integrity Redundancy and Integrity issues

Expensive. But in the long-term Total Cost It's cheaper

of Ownership is cheap

Easy to implement complicated No support for complicated transactions

transactions

Users in a DBMS environment

Following, are the various category of users of a DBMS system

Component Name Task

Application Programmers The Application programmers write

programs in various programming
languages to interact with databases.

Database Administrators Database Admin is responsible for

managing the entire DBMS system.
He/She is called Database admin or DBA.

End-Users The end users are the people who interact

with the database management system.
They conduct various operations on
database like retrieving, updating,
deleting, etc.

Popular DBMS Software

Here, is the list of some popular DBMS system:

• MySQL
• Microsoft Access
• Oracle
• PostgreSQL
• dBASE
• FoxPro
• SQLite
 • IBM DB2
• LibreOffice Base
• MariaDB
• Microsoft SQL Server etc.

Application of DBMS

Sector Use of DBMS

Banking For customer information, account

activities, payments, deposits, loans, etc.

Airlines For reservations and schedule

information.

Universities For student information, course

registrations, colleges and grades.

Telecommunication It helps to keep call records, monthly bills,

maintaining balances, etc.

Finance For storing information about stock, sales,

and purchases of financial instruments
like stocks and bonds.

Sales Use for storing customer, product & sales

information.

Manufacturing It is used for the management of supply

chain and for tracking production of
items. Inventories status in warehouses.

HR Management For information about employees,

salaries, payroll, deduction, generation of
paychecks, etc.

Types of DBMS

Types of DBMS
Four Types of DBMS systems are:

• Hierarchical, Network, Relational & Object-Oriented DBMS

Hierarchical DBMS

In a Hierarchical database, model data is organized in a tree-like structure. Data is Stored

Hierarchically (top down or bottom up) format. Data is represented using a parent-child
relationship. In Hierarchical DBMS parent may have many children, but children have only
one parent.

Network Model

The network database model allows each child to have multiple parents. It helps you to
address the need to model more complex relationships like as the orders/parts many-to-
many relationship. In this model, entities are organized in a graph which can be accessed
through several paths.

Relational model

Relational DBMS is the most widely used DBMS model because it is one of the easiest. This
model is based on normalizing data in the rows and columns of the tables. Relational
model stored in fixed structures and manipulated using SQL.

Object-Oriented Model

In Object-oriented Model data stored in the form of objects. The structure which is called
classes which display data within it. It defines a database as a collection of objects which
stores both data members values and operations.

Advantages of DBMS
• DBMS offers a variety of techniques to store & retrieve data
• DBMS serves as an efficient handler to balance the needs of multiple applications
using the same data
• Uniform administration procedures for data
• Application programmers never exposed to details of data representation and
storage.
• A DBMS uses various powerful functions to store and retrieve data efficiently.
• Offers Data Integrity and Security
• The DBMS implies integrity constraints to get a high level of protection against
prohibited access to data.
• A DBMS schedules concurrent access to the data in such a manner that only one
user can access the same data at a time
 • Reduced Application Development Time

Disadvantage of DBMS
DBMS may offer plenty of advantages but, it has certain flaws-

• Cost of Hardware and Software of a DBMS is quite high which increases the budget
of your organization.
• Most database management systems are often complex systems, so the training
for users to use the DBMS is required.
• In some organizations, all data is integrated into a single database which can be
damaged because of electric failure or database is corrupted on the storage media
• Use of the same program at a time by many users sometimes lead to the loss of
some data.
• DBMS can't perform sophisticated calculations

When not to use a DBMS system?

Although, DBMS system is useful. It is still not suited for specific task mentioned below:

Not recommended when you do not have the budget or the expertise to operate a DBMS.
In such cases, Excel/CSV/Flat Files could do just fine.

Summary
• A database is a collection of related data which represents some aspect of the real
world
• The full form of DBMS is Database Management System. DBMS stands for Database
Management System is a software for storing and retrieving users' data by
considering appropriate security measures.
• DBMS Provides security and removes redundancy
• DBMS has many advantages over tradition Flat File management system
• End-Users, Application Programmers, and Database Administrators are they type
of users who access a DBMS
• DMBS is widely used in Banking, Airlines, Telecommunication, Finance and other
industries
• Four Types of DBMS systems are 1) Hierarchical 2) Network 3) Relational 4) Object-
Oriented DBMS
• DBMS serves as an efficient handler to balance the needs of multiple applications
using the same data
• Cost of Hardware and Software of a DBMS is quite high which increases the budget
of your organization