Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Evolution and Trends of Database
Technology
Adoración de Miguel, Mario Piattini, and Paloma MartÃnez
1.1
Introduction
The history of database (DB) dates from the mid-1960s. DB has proved to
be exceptionally productive and of great economic impact. In fact, today, the
DB market exceeds $8 billion, with an 8% annual growth rate (IDC fore-
cast). Databases have become a first-order strategic product as the basis of
Information Systems (IS), and support management and decision making.
This chapter studies from a global perspective the current problems
that led to the next generation of DBs.
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The next four sections examine the
past, that is, the evolution of DB (Section 1.2); the troubles and challenges
facing current DBs, including changes in the organizations and changes
in the type of applications (Section 1.3); the current research and market
trends based on the performance, functionality, and distribution dimensions
(Section 1.4); and the maturity level of the technology (Section 1.5).
1.
Development and tendencies in DB technology are too complicated to sum up in a few
pages. This chapter presents one approach, but the authors are aware that some aspects
that are important to us may not be significant to other experts and vice versa. In spite of
that, we think it would be interesting for the reader to have a global view of the emer-
gence and development of DB, the problems that have to be solved, and DB trends.
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