TRENDS IN DATABASE TECHNOLOGY - Database Design and Development: An Essential Guide for IT Professionals - page 625

CHAPTER 20

TRENDS IN DATABASE TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

• Get a broad, general overview of the current trends in database technology
• Understand the motivation for going beyond relational DBMSs
• Study the concepts of object orientation in information storage and retrieval
• Note how relational and object technologies are merging into object-relational
systems
• Survey the use of database technology to provide business intelligence
• Explore the leading trends in special applications of database technology

Where is the database industry heading? What are the hot research interests? What
are the new demands for information? Are organizations hungry for new types of
information? Are the purposes and usage of information in the modern enterprise
changing? If so, in what ways? What are the leading trends? Having gone through
the evolution of data systems and having studied database design and development
so far, you would like to explore answers to these questions. Database technology
is vibrant and dynamic. It is adapting to the newer paradigms. The technology
continues to evolve to address newer information requirements. In this chapter,
you will examine these exciting trends; you will understand the leading areas of
innovation and progress.
Although we have reviewed data models other than the relational model,
our main focus has been on relational database systems. For very good reasons,
too. Relational database systems still hold a large share of the database market;
most enterprises have adopted them; their strengths and features still make them