DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
An organization must have
accurate and reliable data for effective decision-making. For this, the
organization maintains records by combining the data from different sources in
an organization. Database is a collection of related information stored along
with the details of interpretation of the data contained. For managing the data
in the database we need a system called Database Management System. In
other words, DBMS is a complex piece of software that facilitates a flexible
management of the data. Through DBMS we can access, monitor, store and modify
the database. Through DBMS data can be made available to all users and
redundant (duplicate) data can be minimized or completely eliminated.
DBMS also makes possible
for an organization to prevent important data access from unauthorized users by
providing the security to the database at different levels. Some of the DBMS
that are used are INGRES, ORACLE, SQL Server and SYBASE. The DBMS allows
users to access data from the database having no knowledge of how data is
actually stored in it. The process is much the same as ordering a menu in the
restaurant. A customer simply orders for the food to a waiter and waiter serves
the specified order. A customer only checks the menu for the desired items and
need not know how the items are arranged in a restaurant. Similarly, the
database user need not know how the data is stored instead he needs to know
only what he requires and the DBMS takes care of retrieving the required data
on its own.