What is a Database?

Definition,
Meaning, Types, Example
 What is Data?

• In simple words, data can be facts related to any object in consideration.

• For example, your name, age, height, weight, etc. are some data related to
you. A picture, image, file, pdf, etc. can also be considered data.
 What is Database?

• A database is a systematic collection of data. They support electronic storage and

manipulation of data. Databases make data management easy.
• Let us discuss a database example: An online telephone directory uses a database to store
data of people, phone numbers, and other contact details. Your electricity service provider
uses a database to manage billing, client-related issues, handle fault data, etc.
• Let us also consider Facebook. It needs to store, manipulate, and present data related to
members, their friends, member activities, messages, advertisements, and a lot more. We can
provide a countless number of examples for the usage of databases.
 Types of Databases
Here are some popular types of databases.
• Distributed databases:
A distributed database is a type of database that has contributions from the common database and information captured by local
computers. In this type of database system, the data is not in one place and is distributed at various organizations.
• Relational databases:
This type of database defines database relationships in the form of tables. It is also called Relational DBMS, which is the most
popular DBMS type in the market. Database example of the RDBMS system include MySQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server
database.
• Object-oriented databases:
This type of computers database supports the storage of all data types. The data is stored in the form of objects. The objects to be
held in the database have attributes and methods that define what to do with the data. PostgreSQL is an example of an object-
oriented relational DBMS.
• Centralized database:
It is a centralized location, and users from different backgrounds can access this data. This type of computers databases store
application procedures that help users access the data even from a remote location.
• Open-source databases:
This kind of database stored information related to operations. It is mainly used in the field of marketing, employee relations,
customer service, of databases.
• Cloud databases:
A cloud database is a database which is optimized or built for such a virtualized environment. There are so many advantages
of a cloud database, some of which can pay for storage capacity and bandwidth. It also offers scalability on-demand, along
with high availability.
• Data warehouses:
Data Warehouse is to facilitate a single version of truth for a company for decision making and forecasting. A Data warehouse
is an information system that contains historical and commutative data from single or multiple sources. Data Warehouse
concept simplifies the reporting and analysis process of the organization.
• NoSQL databases:
NoSQL database is used for large sets of distributed data. There are a few big data performance problems that are effectively
handled by relational databases. This type of computers database is very efficient in analyzing large-size unstructured data.
• Graph databases:
A graph-oriented database uses graph theory to store, map, and query relationships. These kinds of computers databases are
mostly used for analyzing interconnections. For example, an organization can use a graph database to mine data about
customers from social media.
• Personal database:
A personal database is used to store data stored on personal computers that are smaller and easily manageable. The data is
mostly used by the same department of the company and is accessed by a small group of people.
• Multimodal database:
The multimodal database is a type of data processing platform that supports multiple data models that define how the certain
knowledge and information in a database should be organized and arranged.
• Document/JSON database:
In a document-oriented database, the data is kept in document collections, usually using the XML, JSON, BSON formats. One
record can store as much data as you want, in any data type (or types) you prefer
• Hierarchical:
This type of DBMS employs the "parent-child" relationship of storing data. Its structure is like a tree with nodes representing
records and branches representing fields. The windows registry used in Windows XP is a hierarchical database example.
• Network DBMS:
This type of DBMS supports many-to-many relations. It usually results in complex database structures. RDM Server is an
example of database management system that implements the network model.
There are five main components of a database:
• Hardware:
The hardware consists of physical, electronic devices like computers, I/O devices, storage devices, etc. This offers the
interface between computers and real-world systems.
• Software:
This is a set of programs used to manage and control the overall database. This includes the database software itself, the
Operating System, the network software used to share the data among users, and the application programs for accessing data
in the database.
• Data:
Data is a raw and unorganized fact that is required to be processed to make it meaningful. Data can be simple at the same time
unorganized unless it is organized. Generally, data comprises facts, observations, perceptions, numbers, characters, symbols,
images, etc.
• Procedure:
Procedure are a set of instructions and rules that help you to use the DBMS. It is designing and running the database using
documented methods, which allows you to guide the users who operate and manage it.
• Database Access Language:
Database Access language is used to access the data to and from the database, enter new data, update already existing data, or
retrieve required data from DBMS. The user writes some specific commands in a database access language and submits these
to the database.
What is a Database Management System (DBMS)?

• Database Management System (DBMS) is a collection of

programs that enable its users to access databases, manipulate
data, report, and represent data. It also helps to control access
to the database.
• (DBMS)are not a new concept and, as such, had been first
implemented in the 1960s.
 Here, are the important landmarks from the history:

History of Database • 1960 - Charles Bachman designed first DBMS system.

Management • 1970 - Codd introduced IBM'S Information Management System
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.
• 1990 - 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.
 Advantages of DBMS

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

Most database
Cost of Hardware and management systems
DBMS may offer
Software of a DBMS is are often complex
plenty of advantages
quite high which systems, so the
but, it has certain
increases the budget training for users to
flaws-
of your organization. use the DBMS is
required.

In some organizations,
all data is integrated
Use of the same
into a single database
program at a time by DBMS can't perform
which can be
many users sophisticated
damaged because of
sometimes lead to the calculations.
electric failure or
loss of some data.
database is corrupted
on the storage media.
 Summary

• Definition of Database or Database meaning: A database is a systematic collection of data. They support electronic storage
and manipulation of data. Databases make data management easy.
• DBMS stands for Database Management System
• We have four major types of DBMSs namely Hierarchical, Network, Relational, Object-Oriented
• The most widely used DBMS is the relational model that saves data in table formats. It uses SQL as the standard query
language