Database management is a system of coordinating the information that a company needs to run its business operations. It involves storing data, distributing it to users and applications making edits as needed and monitoring changes to the data and making sure that data integrity is not compromised due to unexpected failure. It is part of the overall infrastructure of a company that aids in decision-making and corporate growth as well as compliance with laws like the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
In the 1960s, Charles Bachman and IBM along with others created the first database systems. They evolved into information management systems (IMS) which allowed for the storage and retrieve large amounts of data for a wide range of purposes, from calculating inventory to supporting complicated financial accounting and human resources functions.
A database is tables that are organized in accordance with a specific pattern, for example, one-to-many relationships. It uses primary key to identify records and permits cross-references between tables. Each table contains a number of fields, called attributes, which provide information about the entities that comprise the data. Relational models, created by E. F. “TedCodd Codd in the 1970s at IBM and IBM, are the most used database type today. This design is based on normalizing data to make it simpler to use. It is also easier to update data since it does not require the changing of many sections of the databases.
Most DBMSs can support multiple types of databases, offering internal and external levels of organization. The internal level deals with cost, scalability, as well as other operational issues like the physical layout of the database. The external level is the representation of the database in user interfaces and applications. It could include a mix of different external views (based on the different data models) and may include virtual tables that are created from generic data in order to improve performance.
