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Everything You Need to Know About Database Management Systems
Key Takeaways- Database management systems (DBMSs) allow users to extract and manipulate the data in a database
- They help organizations normalize, structure, and keep data more secure
- Relational DBMSs are the most popular data-keeping systems
- Compared to traditional file systems, adopting a relational DBMS is the smart move for organizations that want more flexibility, efficiency, or an advanced backup system
What is a database management system?
A database management system, commonly referred to DBMS, is a software application that allows users to interact with an organized collection of data. In its most basic form, a DBMS is a tool that helps users create, read, store, retrieve, update, delete, and run queries on data in a database. From a business perspective, DBMSs help organizations enhance data integrity, security, concurrency, and uniformity by allowing them to manage the data, database engine, and structure. The following are some examples of database management systems in action.Data normalization
One of the challenges of handling data and databases is the risk of duplication, especially with multiple concurrent users. DBMSs use a process known as to eliminate destructive anomalies in your system. This database schema design technique splits large tables into smaller ones whenever attributes have redundant values. As a result, your data are more consistent and easier to update. Put another way, database normalization optimizes data organization, improves access time, and saves storage.Data structuring
Database management systems help your organization arrange data in a clear structure. For example, you can systematically organize tables, objects, and records to make them more accessible.Security
DBMSs use essential security controls such as user authentication, data encryption, and user authorization to protect the integrity of your database, ensure authorized users don’t cause accidental damage to the database, and prevent data breaches. As the system administrator, you can define access policies, configure user accounts, and modify access scopes and restrictions. These operations help you limit, control, and manage database access.Data backup
Most computerized data-keeping systems support physical and logical data backup to protect your organization’s database against data loss. You can store a copy of all your files on-site or move them to the cloud. Moreover, database management systems provide a recovery platform, allowing you to reconstruct a database (fully or partially) in case of data corruption or data loss.Performance tuning
Database management systems use integrated monitoring tools to help you analyze performance. After analyzing the system’s performance, you can easily create optimized indexes to tune the database. Performance tuning helps you reduce infrastructure and operation usage and optimize SQL queries.Classification criteria of DBMSs
The three most common classification criteria of database management systems are database distribution, data model, and user numbers.1. Database distribution
Generally, DBMS distribution systems fall under the following classes:- Centralized systems: The database and DBMS are stored at a single site that serves other systems.
- Distributed systems: The DBMS software and database is distributed over multiple sites through a computer network. They can be homogeneous (identical DBMS software across multiple sites) or heterogeneous (different software for different sites).
- Parallel network systems: Multiple data storage disks and central processing units are held in parallel. They provide greater processing output and input speeds and are ideal for running queries on large databases.
- Client-server systems: In these systems, the DBMS software runs on the server, handling tasks such as database access and updates. The DBMS tools and applications run on the client platforms, processing client requests and returning results to them.
