CHAPTER 1

Databases and Database Users

Book: Fundamentals of Database Systems 7th Edition ( by Ramez Elmasri)

OUTLINE
• Types of Databases and Database Applications
• Basic Definitions
• Typical DBMS Functionality
• Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
• Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
• Types of Database Users
• Advantages of Using the Database Approach
• Historical Development of Database Technology
• Extending Database Capabilities
What is data, database,
DBMS
• Data: Known facts that can be recorded and have an implicit meaning; raw
• Database: a highly organized, interrelated, and structured
set of data about a particular enterprise
• Controlled by a database management system (DBMS)
• DBMS
• Set of programs to access the data
• An environment that is both convenient and efficient to use
• Database systems are used to manage collections of data that are:
• Highly valuable
• Relatively large
• Accessed by multiple users and applications, often at the same
time.
• A modern database system is a complex software system whose task is to
manage a large, complex collection of data.
• Databases touch all aspects of our lives
Types of Databases and Database
Applications
• Traditional applications:
• Numeric and textual databases
• More recent applications:
• Multimedia databases
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Biological and genome databases
• Data warehouses
• Mobile databases
• Real-time and active databases
• First part of book focuses on traditional applications
• A number of recent applications are described later in the book (for example,
Chapters 24,25,26,27,28,29)
Why is “big data” a “big
• Government
deal”?
• Private Sector
• Walmart handles more than 1 million customer transactions
every hour, which is imported into databases
estimated to contain more than 2.5 petabytes of data
• Facebook handles 220 billion photos from its user base
• Falcon Credit Card Fraud Detection System protects 2.6 billion
active accounts world-wide
• Science
• Large Synoptic Survey Telescope generate 150 Terabyte
of data every 5 days
• Biomedical computation like decoding human Genome and
personalized medicine
Lifecycle of Data:
4 “A”s

Acquisition
Basic Definitions
• Database:
• A collection of related data.
• Data:
• Known facts that can be recorded and have an implicit meaning.
• Mini-world:
• Some part of the real world about which data is stored in a database. For example, student
grades and transcripts at a university.
• Database Management System (DBMS):
• A software package/system to facilitate the creation and maintenance of a computerized
database.
• Database system:
• The DBMS software together with the data itself. Sometimes, the applications are also
included.
Impact of Databases and
Database Technology
• Businesses: Banking, Insurance, Retail, Transportation, Healthcare,
Manufacturing
• Service industries: Financial, Real-estate, Legal, Electronic Commerce,
Small businesses
• Education : Resources for content and Delivery
• More recently: Social Networks, Environmental and Scientific
Applications, Medicine and Genetics
• Personalized applications: based on smart mobile devices
A simplified architecture for a
database system
View level: what
application programs see;
views can also hide
information (such as an
instructor’s salary) for
security purposes.

Physical level:
describes how a
record instructor)
is stored.
A simplified architecture for a
database system
What a DBMS Facilitates
• Define a particular database in terms of its data types, structures, and constraints
• Construct or load the initial database contents on a secondary storage medium
• Manipulating the database:
• Retrieval: Querying, generating reports
• Modification: Insertions, deletions and updates to its content
• Accessing the database through Web applications
• Processing and sharing by a set of concurrent users and application programs –
yet, keeping all data valid and consistent
Other DBMS Functionalities
• DBMS may additionally provide:
• Protection or security measures to prevent unauthorized access
• “Active” processing to take internal actions on data
• Presentation and visualization of data
• Maintenance of the database and associated programs over the lifetime of
the database application
Application Programs and DBMS
• Applications interact with a database by generating
- Queries: that access different parts of data and formulate the result of a
request
- Transactions: that may read some data and “update” certain values or
generate new data and store that in the database
Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
• Mini-world for the example:
• Part of a UNIVERSITY environment
• Some mini-world entities:
• STUDENTs
• COURSEs
• SECTIONs (of COURSEs)
• (Academic) DEPARTMENTs
• INSTRUCTORs
Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
• Some mini-world relationships:
• SECTIONs are of specific COURSEs
• STUDENTs take SECTIONs
• COURSEs have prerequisite COURSEs
• INSTRUCTORs teach SECTIONs
• COURSEs are offered by DEPARTMENTs
• STUDENTs major in DEPARTMENTs
• Note: The above entities and relationships are typically expressed in a conceptual
data model, such as the entity-relationship (ER) data or UML class model (see
Chapters 3, 4)
Example of a Simple Database
The relational model

E.F. “Ted” Codd

Main Characteristics of the
Database Approach
• Self-describing nature of a database system:
• A DBMS catalog stores the description of a particular database
(e.g. data structures, types, and constraints)
• The description is called meta-data*.
• This allows the DBMS software to work with different database
applications.
• Insulation between programs and data:
• Called program-data independence.
• Allows changing data structures and storage organization without
having to change the DBMS access programs
• E.g., ADTs
Example of a Simplified Database Catalog
Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
• Data abstraction:
• A data model is used to hide storage details and present the users with a
conceptual view of the database.
• Programs refer to the data model constructs rather than data storage
details
• Support of multiple views of the data:
• Each user may see a different view of the database, which describes only the
data of interest to that user.
Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
• Sharing of data and multi-user transaction processing:
• Allowing a set of concurrent users to retrieve from and to update the database.
• Concurrency control within the DBMS guarantees that each transaction is correctly
executed or aborted
• Recovery subsystem ensures each completed transaction has its effect
permanently
recorded in the database
• OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) is a major part of database applications; allows
hundreds of concurrent transactions to execute per second.
Database Users
• Users may be divided into
• Those who actually use and control the database content, and those who
design, develop and maintain database applications (called “Actors
on the Scene”), and
• Those who design and develop the DBMS software and related tools, and the
computer systems operators (called “Workers Behind the Scene”).
 Database Users – Actors
on the Scene
• Actors on the scene
• Database administrators
• Responsible for authorizing access to the database, for coordinating and monitoring its
use, acquiring software and hardware resources, controlling its use and monitoring
efficiency of operations.
• Database designers
• Responsible to define the content, the structure, the constraints, and functions or
transactions against the database. They must communicate with the end-users and
understand their needs.
Database Users – Actors on the
Scene (continued)
• System analysts and application developers
• System analysts: They understand the user requirements of naïve and
sophisticated users and design applications including canned
transactions to meet
those requirements.
• Application programmers: Implement the specifications developed by
analysts and test and debug them before deployment.
• Business analysts: There is an increasing need for such people who can
analyze vast amounts of business data and real-time data (“Big
Data”) for better decision making related to planning, advertising,
marketing etc.
Database Users – Actors behind
the• Scene
System designers and implementors: Design and
implement DBMS packages in the form of modules and
interfaces and test and debug them. The DBMS must interface
with applications, language compilers, operating system
components, etc.
• Tool developers: Design and implement software systems
called tools for modeling and designing databases,
performance monitoring, prototyping, test data generation,
user interface creation, simulation etc. that facilitate building
of applications and allow using database effectively.
• Operators and maintenance personnel: They manage
the actual running and maintenance of the database
system hardware and software environment.
Advantages of Using the Database
Approach
• Controlling redundancy in data storage and in development and
maintenance efforts.
• Sharing of data among multiple users.
• Restricting unauthorized access to data. Only the DBA staff uses
privileged commands and facilities.
• Providing persistent storage for program Objects
• E.g., Object-oriented DBMSs make program objects persistent– see
Chapter
12.
• Providing storage structures (e.g. indexes) for efficient query
processing – see Chapter 17.
Advantages of Using the Database
Approach (continued)
• Providing optimization of queries for efficient processing
• Providing backup and recovery services
• Providing multiple interfaces to different classes of users
• Representing complex relationships among data
• Enforcing integrity constraints on the database
• Drawing inferences and actions from the stored data using deductive
and active rules and triggers
Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach
• Potential for enforcing standards:
• Standards refer to data item names, display formats, screens, report
structures, meta-data (description of data), Web page layouts,
etc.
• Reduced application development time:
• Incremental time to add each new application is reduced.
Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach (continued)
• Flexibility to change data structures:
• Database structure may evolve as new requirements are defined.
• Availability of current information:
• Extremely important for on-line transaction systems such as shopping, airline,
hotel, car reservations.
• Economies of scale:
• Wasteful overlap of resources and personnel can be avoided by consolidating
data and applications across departments.
Historical Development of Database
Technology
• Early database applications:
• The Hierarchical and Network models were introduced in mid 1960s and dominated
during the seventies.
• A bulk of the worldwide database processing still occurs using these models,
particularly, the hierarchical model using IBM’s IMS system.
• Relational model-based systems:
• Relational model was originally introduced in 1970, was heavily researched and
experimented within IBM Research and several universities.
• Relational DBMS Products emerged in the early 1980s.
Historical Development of Database
Technology (continued)
• Object-oriented and emerging applications:
• Object-Oriented Database Management Systems (OODBMSs) were introduced in late
1980s and early 1990s to cater to the need of complex data processing in CAD and
other applications.
• Their use has not taken off much
• Many relational DBMSs have incorporated object database concepts, leading to a
new category called object-relational DBMSs (ORDBMSs)
• Extended relational systems add further capabilities (e.g. for multimedia data,
text,
XML, and other data types)
Extending Database
Capabilities (1)
• New functionality is being added to DBMSs in the following
areas:
• Scientific applications – physics, chemistry, biology,
genetics
• Spatial: weather, earth and atmospheric sciences and
astronomy
• XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
• Image storage and management
• Audio and video data management
• Time series and historical data management
• The above gives rise to new research and development in
incorporating new data types, complex data structures, new
operations and storage and indexing schemes in database
systems.
Chapter Summary
• Types of databases and database applications
• Basic definitions
• Typical DBMS functionality
• Example of a database (UNIVERSITY)
• Main characteristics of the database Approach
• Types of database users
• Advantages of using the database approach
• Historical development of database technology
• Extending database capabilities
• When not to use databases