Chapter 7: Storing Organizational Information- Databases

  Goodmorning !

 Hope everyone had a prosperous Chinese New Year. Today i shall be explaining briefly about storing information (database). Lets get started! :D 

Storing Organizational Information....

      The computer program used to manage and query a database is know as a database management system (DBMS). The basic concept of database is a collection of records, or pieces of information.

Relational Database Fundamentals......

From previous chapters we have conclude that information is every where, and they are stored in the formed of database.

Database: maintains information about various types of objects(inventory), events (transaction), people ( employees) and places (ware-house).

Database includes:

Hierarchical database model – information is organized into a tree-like structure (using parent/child relationships) in such a way that it cannot have too many relationships. 

 

Network database model – a flexible way of representing objects and their relationships.

 Relational database model – stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables

Entities and Attributes...

 Entity is the relational database model is a person, place, thing, transaction, or event about which information is stored.    The rows in each table contains the entities 

 Attributes (or known as fields and columns) are characteristics or properties of an entity class. The columns in each table contain the attributes

Keys and Relationships.....

-    Primary keys and foreign keys identity the various entity classes (tables) in the database;

 Primary key – a fields (or group of fields) that uniquely identities a given entity in a table

  Foreign key – a primary key of one table that appears an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationships among the two tables

 

Relational Database Advantages.....

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY

 

-     A well-designed database should;

1.  Handle changes quickly and easily

2.  Provide users with different views

            3.  Have only one physical views
                 (deals with the physical storage of information on a storage device
            4.  Have multiple logical views
                 (focuses on how users logically access information)

 

INCREASED SCALABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

-      A database must scale to meet increased demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels

1.  Scalability – refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands

2.  Performance – measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction

REDUCED INFORMATION REDUNDANCY

-      Databases reduce information redundancy (the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places). However, inconsistency is one of the primary problems with redundant information.

INCREASED INFORMATION SECURITY

 

-      Information is an organization asset and must be protected.Databases offer several security features including;

  i.  Password – provides authentication of the user

 ii.  Access level – determines who has access to the different types of information

            iii. Access control – determines types of user access, such as read-only access

Database Management System....

 Database management systems (DBMS) – software through which users and application programs interact with a database

 

 Data-Driven website business Advantages

 

 Integrating Informational Among Multiple Databases ...

An integration  it allows separate systems to communicate directly with each other. There are two types of intergration.....  

1.   Forward integration – takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and processes

          2.  Backward integration – takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to    all upstream systems and processes

 

- The End-