Question

Discuss the role of databases and database management systems in the context of enterprise systems. Also include a discussion on the components of the DBMS.

Answer 1

The Role of databases and database management systems in the context of enterprise systems

What is Data?

• Data is a collection of a distinct unit of information.
• This “data” is used in a variety of forms of text, numbers, media and many more. T
• alking in terms of computing. Data is basically information that can be translated into a particular form for efficient movement and processing.

What is a Database?

• The database is an organized collection of structured data to make it easily accessible, manageable and update.
• In simple words, you can say, a database in a place where the data is stored.
• The best analogy is the library. The library contains a huge collection of books of different genres, here the library is database and books are the data.

Enterprise Database Systems

An enterprise DBMS is designed to be accessed by 100 to 10,000 people at the same time. This can include large corporations with a few thousand employees or a busy web server with hundreds or thousands of people online accessing it at the same time.

Several years ago, most small businesses would have had little need for an enterprise solution for storing and managing data. However, the world of data has quickly changed. In 2019, there is over 2 quintillion (a two followed by 18 zeroes) of data created every day. As more small companies access more and more information about their customers and data generated from social media content and web analytics, there is a greater need for enterprise-grade DBMS solutions.

Types of DBMS Solutions Today

A growing number of companies are moving away from in-house database systems to those that are hosted elsewhere and are available in the cloud through the internet. Not only does this make the information more accessible from more locations, but it has reduced costs.

There are essentially four kinds of databases from which to choose. Today, relational databases are the most common, with object-oriented databases as a distant second. Flat and hierarchical databases are becoming much less common.

• Relational Database: This is the most common form of database. The data is organized in a series of tables. Each table is independent but linked to the other tables. If you have ever used an Excel worksheet with links to other worksheets, you have used a form of a relational database. Commands like "select" and "join" can be used to link data between tables.
  
• Object-Oriented Database: This database works much like object-oriented programming. Data and methods are stored as objects that can be grouped together in classes.
  
• Flat Database: Data is stored in a single file with a limited number of fields that can be filled with information. A flat database is prone to errors, and because of its limited capacity, it can be outgrown by a company with an increasing amount of data to be stored.
  
• Hierarchical Database: Data is organized in a network of hierarchical relationships. This model can become problematic when there is a lot of data to be managed.

components of the DBMS.

DBMS have several components, each performing very significant tasks in the database management system environment. Below is a list of components within the database and its environment.

Software
This is the set of programs used to control and manage the overall database. This includes the DBMS software itself, the Operating System, the network software being used to share the data among users, and the application programs used to access data in the DBMS.

This is the main component, as this is the program which controls everything. The DBMS software is more like a wrapper around the physical database, which provides us with an easy-to-use interface to store, access and update data.

The DBMS software is capable of understanding the Database Access Language and intrepret it into actual database commands to execute them on the DB.

Hardware
Consists of a set of physical electronic devices such as computers, I/O devices, storage devices, etc., this provides the interface between computers and the real world systems.

When we say Hardware, we mean computer, hard disks, I/O channels for data, and any other physical component involved before any data is successfully stored into the memory.

When we run Oracle or MySQL on our personal computer, then our computer's Hard Disk, our Keyboard using which we type in all the commands, our computer's RAM, ROM all become a part of the DBMS hardware.

Data
DBMS exists to collect, store, process and access data, the most important component. The database contains both the actual or operational data and the metadata.

Data is that resource, for which DBMS was designed. The motive behind the creation of DBMS was to store and utilise data.

In a typical Database, the user saved Data is present and meta data is stored.

Metadata is data about the data. This is information stored by the DBMS to better understand the data stored in it.

For example: When I store my Name in a database, the DBMS will store when the name was stored in the database, what is the size of the name, is it stored as related data to some other data, or is it independent, all this information is metadata.

Procedures
These are the instructions and rules that assist on how to use the DBMS, and in designing and running the database, using documented procedures, to guide the users that operate and manage it.

Procedures refer to general instructions to use a database management system. This includes procedures to setup and install a DBMS, To login and logout of DBMS software, to manage databases, to take backups, generating reports etc.

Database Access Language
This is used to access the data to and from the database, to enter new data, update existing data, or retrieve required data from databases. The user writes a set of appropriate commands in a database access language, submits these to the DBMS, which then processes the data and generates and displays a set of results into a user readable form.

Database Access Language is a simple language designed to write commands to access, insert, update and delete data stored in any database.

A user can write commands in the Database Access Language and submit it to the DBMS for execution, which is then translated and executed by the DBMS.

User can create new databases, tables, insert data, fetch stored data, update data and delete the data using the access language.

Query Processor
This transforms the user queries into a series of low level instructions. This reads the online user’s query and translates it into an efficient series of operations in a form capable of being sent to the run time data manager for execution

Run Time Database Manager
Sometimes referred to as the database control system, this is the central software component of the DBMS that interfaces with user-submitted application programs and queries, and handles database access at run time. Its function is to convert operations in user’s queries. It provides control to maintain the consistency, integrity and security of the data.

Data Manager
Also called the cache manger, this is responsible for handling of data in the database, providing a recovery to the system that allows it to recover the data after a failure.

Database Engine
The core service for storing, processing, and securing data, this provides controlled access and rapid transaction processing to address the requirements of the most demanding data consuming applications. It is often used to create relational databases for online transaction processing or online analytical processing data.