What Is Database Management?

By Michelle Knight on February 17, 2022

Database Management allows a person to organize, store, and retrieve data from a computer. Database Management can also describe the data storage, operations, and security practices of a database administrator (DBA) throughout the life cycle of the data. Managing a database involves designing, implementing, and supporting stored data to maximize its value. Database Management Systems, according to the DAMA DMBoK, include various types:

• Centralized: all the data lives in one system in one place. All users come to that one system to access the data.
• Distributed: Data resides over a variety of nodes, making quick access possible. “Rather than rely on hardware to deliver high-availability, the Database Management software…is designed to replicate data amongst the servers” allowing it to detect and handle failures.
• Federated: Provisions data without additional persistence or duplication of source data. It maps multiple autonomous databases into one large object. This kind of database architecture is best for heterogenous and distributed integration projects. Federated databases can be categorized as:
  • Loosely Coupled: Component databases construct their own federated schema and typically requires accessing other component database systems through a multi- database language.
  • Tightly Coupled: Component systems use independent processes to construct and publish into an integrated federal schema.
• Blockchain: A type of federated database system used to securely manage financial and other types of transactions.

Other Definitions Include:

• A “product used for storage and organization of data that typically has defined formats and structures”. Database management is categorized by their basic structures, to some extent, by their use or deployment.” (Gartner)
• “Administration tasks pertaining to managing records, storage space and backups.” (Microsoft Technet)
• “A computerized data-keeping system. Users of the system are given facilities to perform several kinds of operations on such a system for either manipulation of the data in the database or the management of the database structure itself.” (IBM)
• “Different Data Models currently used to structure the logical view of the database: relational, hierarchical and network.” (Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Processes around “Sharing, storing, protecting and retrieving an ever-increasing amount of data.” (AICPA)
• “The monitoring, administration and maintenance of databases and database groups across an enterprise.” (Oracle)

Businesses Need It To:

• Run business operations
• Organize and track customers, inventory, and employees
• Ensure adequate query performance
• Keep up with “paperless” consumer demands
• Store data of distinct types
• Automate processes.

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