Database Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 1
THE DATABASE APPROACH
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
•
Understand how the database approach is different and superior to earlier data
systems
•
Examine how information demand and technology explosion drive database
systems
•
Trace the evolution of data systems and note how we have arrived at the
database approach
•
Comprehend the benefits of database systems and perceive the need for them
•
Survey briefly various data models, types of databases, and the database
industry
Consider the following scenarios:
•
You meet someone in a computer store. As a knowledgeable IT professional,
you want to help this person. He says he is looking for
database
software to
keep the names and addresses of his customers to do his mailings and billings.
But what he really needs is a mail-merge program.
•
You call your travel agent to make your airline reservations for the vacation
you have been waiting for all year. The agent responds by saying that she cannot
do that just now because the
database
is down. She really means that the reser-
vations computer system is not working.
•
Here is one more. You call your cellular phone company to complain about
errors on the latest billing statement. The phone company representative says
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