Database: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:10, 21 February 2012

Revision as of 21:46, 22 February 2012

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===Database concept===

The database concept has evolved since the 1960s to ease increasing difficulties in designing, building, and maintaining complex [[information system]]s (typically with many concurrent end-users, and with a diverse large amount of diverse data). It has evolved together with database management systems which enable the effective handling of databases. Though the terms database and DBMS define different entities, they are inseparable: a database's properties are determined by its supporting DBMS and vice-versa. The [[Oxford English dictionary]] cites{{citation needed|at lest here citation needed|date=November 2011}} a 1962 technical report as the first to use the term "data-base." With the progress in technology in the areas of [[processors]], [[computer memory]], [[computer storage]] and [[computer networks]], the sizes, capabilities, and performance of databases and their respective DBMSs have grown in orders of magnitudes. For decades it has been unlikely that a complex information system can be built effectively without a proper database supported by a DBMS. The utilization of databases is now spread to such a wide degree that virtually every technology and product relies on databases and DBMSs for its development and commercialization, or even may have such embedded in it. Also, organizations and companies, from small to large, heavily depend on databases for their operations.

No widely accepted exact definition exists for DBMS. However, a system needs to provide considerable functionality to qualify as a DBMS. Accordingly its supported data collection needs to meet respective usability requirements (broadly defined by [[Database#Major database usage requirements|the requirements below]]) to qualify as a database. Thus, a database and its supporting DBMS are defined here by a set of general requirements listed below. Virtually all existing mature DBMS products meet these requirements to a great extent, while less mature either meet them or converge to meet them.