What is Database Management Software?
Database management software acts as an interface between the end user and a database. It manages the data, the database engine and the database schema to facilitate data organization and ongoing operations of a database system.
The database management system it operated using commands. It receives commands from a database administrator, and then instructs the database to retrieve data, modify data, or read existing data.
Typical DBMS models include cloud-based database management systems like AWS database services, in-memory database management systems (IMDBMS), columnar database management systems (CDBMS), and NoSQL databases.
In this article you will learn:
- What is Database Management Software?
- Database Management Software Features
- What is Database Management Software Used For?
- Key Considerations When Choosing a Database Management Software
- Database Management Software with Raima
Database Management Software Features
There are many database management tools to choose from. The most basic features of a DBMS are:
- Data structure-a well-defined hierarchical structure organizes information into records, objects or tables. This type of database organization ensures easy searching, retrieval, and querying.
- Database customization-provides capabilities to create custom elements, in addition to basic records, objects and tables, and meet unique user needs.
- Data retrieval-ensures database management systems receive data input from users or integrated applications, storing data in relevant locations. Users can later access the database to retrieve the records to a file, print them, or display them on the screen.
- Query languages-a universal DBMS allows you to use a query language to perform tasks that help users interact with records in the database, such as collecting, searching, sorting and modifying data.
- Multi-user access-DBMS provides multiple users with access to information stored in the same data storage area. It should provide security mechanisms to limit access to data to specific users.
- Data integrity-all information in the database can be accessed by multiple users, but a locking mechanism ensures only one user can modify the same data at the same time. This prevents data corruption.
- Metadata-is data that describes the elements (such as records, objects, and related files) that make up the structure of the database.
What is Database Management Software Used For?
Among the key values of DBMS systems are:
DBMS allows users (both local and remote) to easily share data in a standardized manner. Because data is structured, managed, and up to date, the DBMS can respond to ad hoc queries with the latest relevant information, and provides a query set back to the application or user.
When multiple users access the database, the threat of a data breach becomes more apparent. Database management software can better implement data confidentiality and security guidelines through controlled user access, compared to non-structured forms of data storage.
Simplified data access and tools to extract valuable insights from the data enable operators to make quick and informed decisions. DBMS applications are used in virtually every industry. A few common uses:
- Banks-customer information, account activity, and payments
- Airlines-flight booking and itinerary information
- Telecom-monthly bills and logging of calls and other events
- Finance-storing data about financial instruments such like stocks and bonds
- Sales-storing customer information and history (as in customer relationship management or CRM systems), product data, customer purchases
- Manufacturing-supply chain management, keeping record of manufacturing items in warehouses, tracking inventory
- Human resources-employee data, salaries, deductions, aggregate payroll data
Key Considerations When Choosing a Database Management Software
Selecting a good database management system is key to business success. Here are a few key factors to consider when selecting a DBMS:
Consider how familiar the system is to employees who need to use it and those who need to manage it. Database users may include marketing professionals, IT departments, database developers, and more. Check applicability from everyone’s point of view-both the end user experience and the administrator or developer experience.
Try to slice and dice data to see how easy it is to visually analyze datasets and view the results of queries. Visualizations provided by the database should be suitable for the task at hand. Consider how users will use the data-for their own use, for presenting to management, for the creation of automated reports, etc.-and ensure the database can generate those visualizations or reports, or integrate with other systems that can generate them.
Make sure the modules available in your database management software meet your business requirements. Consider the following functionality:
- Data extraction and filtering
- Visualization and insights
- Predictive analytics
- Data segmentation and modeling
- Automation of the database and data operations
- Integrations with other systems your organization uses
DBMS systems often contain sensitive data. You can achieve data protection through authorization and authentication, as well as data encryption. Data protection methods depend on the data structure and your security requirements, and should be carefully considered during the DBMS evaluation process.
Make sure the system can grow with your data and business. Most businesses regularly collect and update huge volumes of data, so ensure your database management system has a reasonably high capacity, and an easy path for scaling it up, either by clustering with additional database units, or by elastic on-demand scalability, as in cloud database services.
Also consider the storage aspect-if running on-premises, what type of data storage equipment do you need, in what quantity, what is the cost and what are the ongoing costs for operating the equipment.
You must consider data update frequency, and the need for automation. Is the database updated in real time, every few seconds or minutes, or on an hourly or daily basis? Similarly, consider how often the data is consumed and what is the level of freshness required by users. In order to automate data updates and facilitate integration with other systems, you will need to understand your data sources and ensure their characteristics are compatible with your DBMS. Also consider how the DBMS will deal with a change to data sources structure or schema, or with the addition of new data sources.
Database Management Software with Raima
RaimaDB, is a linkable library that you easily embed within your application to Collect, Store, Manage and Move data in near real-time – requiring zero ongoing administration. RaimaDB is perfectly designed to be bundled inside applications that run on small embedded IoT or IIoT devices out on the edge or in the fog, e.g. collecting all information gathered from a network of sensors and actuators, then securely delivery that data up to enterprise level hardware systems in the Cloud.
RaimaDB comes fully compiled and packaged for software developers with options to meet a variety of data management architectural designs by providing a choice of data models and access methods to solve the most stringent performance requirements. RaimaDB is a solid time-tested ACID compliant database technology that employs a number of advanced options to meet today’s more complex data management challenges such as building highly-available database systems, moving data from small low-powered embedded devices up into larger enterprise systems, managing information purely in-memory, database partitioning support to facilitate data distribution and scalability, and interfaces allowing access to the data from external sources.
