Database Reference
In-Depth Information
A number of RDBMS products are available, ranging from freely avail-
able open source products such as MySQL to enterprise-level solutions
such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, or IBM's DB2. Which system you
use depends largely on your specific environment and requirements. This
book focuses on Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Although a data model can
be implemented on any system, it needs to be tweaked to fit that product.
If you know ahead of time that you will be deploying on SQL Server 2008,
you can start that tweaking from step 1 and end up with a database that will
take full advantage of the features that SQL Server offers.
Data modeling is a long process, and doing it correctly requires many hours.
In fact, when a team sits down to start building an application, data model-
ing can easily be the single most time-consuming part. This large time
investment means that the process will be scrutinized by managers, appli-
cation developers, and the customer. The temptation is to cut the modeling
process short and move on to creating the database. All too often we have
seen applications built with a “We will build the database as we go” attitude.
This is the wrong way to go about building any solution that includes a data-
base. Data modeling is extremely important, and it is vital that you take the
time to do it correctly. Failure to do things right in the beginning will cause
you to revisit the database design many times over the course of a project.
Data modeling is the plan by which the database will eventually be built.
If the plan is flawed, it will be impossible to build a good database. Compare
it to building a house. You start with blueprints, which show how the house
will be built. If the blueprints are incorrect or incomplete, you wouldn't ex-
pect to be able to build the house. Data modeling is the same. Given that
data modeling is important to the success of the database, it is equally im-
portant to do it correctly. Well-designed data models not only serve as your
blueprint but also help you avoid some common database problems. Let's ex-
plore some of the benefits that a sound data model gives you.
Data Consistency
A solid data model provides
data consistency.
Without data consistency,
you could find that you have all the data you could ever want, but you can't
garner helpful information from it. What do I mean by data consistency?
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