Database Management Basics

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Database management is a system of coordinating the information that is used to support a company’s business operations. It involves storing data, disseminating it to applications and users making edits as needed and monitoring changes to data and making sure that data integrity is not compromised due to unexpected failure. It is part of the informational infrastructure of a company that assists in decision making as well as corporate growth and compliance with laws like the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

The first database systems were created in the 1960s by Charles Bachman, IBM and others. They developed into information management systems (IMS) which allowed large amounts of data to be stored and retrieved for a variety of purposes. From calculating inventory, to aiding complex financial accounting functions as well as human resource functions.

A database is a collection of tables that organizes data in accordance with the specific scheme, for example one-to-many relationships. It makes use of primary keys to identify records, and allow cross-references between tables. Each table contains a number of fields, called attributes, which provide information about the data entities. The most well-known kind of database is a relational model, created by E. F. “Ted” Codd at IBM in the 1970s. This design is based upon normalizing data to make it more user-friendly. It also makes it easier to update data, avoiding the necessity of changing different sections of the database.

Most DBMSs can accommodate multiple database types by providing different levels of external and internal organization. The internal level focuses on cost, scalability and other operational issues, such as the design of the database’s physical storage. The external level is the representation of the database on user interfaces and applications. It can include a combination of different external views (based on the different data models) and may also include virtual tables which are generated from generic data in order to improve performance.