Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
to get an idea of the volume of information needed by any business or other
organization.
1.1.2 Understanding Data Management
Data is a difficult corporate resource to manage. In data, you have a resource of
tremendous volume, with billions, trillions, and more individual pieces, each
piece of which is different from the next. And much of it is in a state of change
at any one time.
As far back as the early to mid-1960s, companies began to realize that stor-
ing each application's data separately, in simple files, was problematic for the fol-
lowing reasons:
▲
The increasing volume of data.
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The increasing demand for data access.
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The need for data security, privacy, backup, and recovery.
▲
The desire to share data and cut down on data redundancy (unwanted
duplicate data in a database).
It soon became clear that a new kind of software was needed to help man-
age the data, as well as faster hardware to keep up with the increasing volume
of data and data access demands. In terms of personnel, data management spe-
cialists would have to be developed, educated, and given the responsibility for
managing the data as a corporate resource.
Out of this need was born a new kind of software, the database manage-
ment system (DBMS), and a new category of personnel, with titles like database
administrator and data management specialist. And, yes, hardware has progres-
sively gotten faster and cheaper for the degree of performance that it provides.
The integration of these advances adds up to much more than the simple sum
of their parts; they add up to the database environment.
1.1.3 The Need for Data Management
It is practically impossible to buy anything, sell anything, or travel anywhere by air,
rail, or sea without the fact being recorded in a database somewhere. With the recent
rash of mergers of all kinds of organizations into larger entities, this data is becom-
ing centralized. Residing in databases like the one shown in Figure 1-3, the data
can be “mined” for useful information, allowing companies to find out not only
who you are and where you live, but also what you like to eat, what you like to
read, and who your favorite musicians and entertainers are. They know what your
favorite sports teams are, and what sports you like to participate in yourself. They
know where you shop and how often. They know when you are about to run out
of something you buy regularly. They know when your kids are born, when they
