Implementation: Database Management Systems
or How database usage requirements are met
A database management system (DBMS) is a system that allows to build and maintain databases, as well as to utilize their data and retrieve information from it. A DBMS implements solutions (see Major functional areas above) to the database usability requirements above. It defines the database type that it supports, as well as its functionality and operational capabilities. A DBMS provides the internal processes for external applications built on them. The end-users of some such specific application are usually exposed only to that application and do not directly interact with the DBMS. Thus end-users enjoy the effects of the underlying DBMS, but its internals are completely invisible to end-users. Database designers and database administrators interact with the DBMS through dedicated interfaces to build and maintain the applications' databases, and thus need some more knowledge and understanding about how DBMSs operate and the DBMSs' external interfaces and tuning parameters.
A DBMS consists of software that operates databases, providing storage, access, security, backup and other facilities to meet needed requirements. DBMSs can be categorized according to the database model(s) that they support, such as relational or XML, the type(s) of computer they support, such as a server cluster or a mobile phone, the query language(s) that access the database, such as SQL or XQuery, performance trade-offs, such as maximum scale or maximum speed or others. Some DBMSs cover more than one entry in these categories, e.g., supporting multiple query languages. Database software typically support the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard which allows the database to integrate (to some extent) with other databases.
The development of a mature general-purpose DBMS typically takes several years and many man-years. Developers of DBMS typically update their product to follow and take advantage of progress in computer and storage technologies. Several DBMS products like Oracle and IBM DB2 have been in on-going development since the 1970s-1980s. Since DBMSs comprise a significant economical market, computer and storage vendors often take into account DBMS requirements in their own development plans.
Read more about this topic: Database
Famous quotes containing the words management and/or systems:
“The Management Area of Cherokee
National Forest, interested in fish,
Has mapped Tellico and Bald Rivers
And North River, with the tributaries
Brookshire Branch and Sugar Cove Creed:
A fishy map for facile fishery....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“What is most original in a man’s nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn’t have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.”
—Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)