Any organization or business needs to store and maintain data that could be retrieved and used at anytime. To achieve this end, every organization, big or small, has a database management system (DBMS) in place to better facilitate business operations. A DBMS defines the way data are stored and manage. It combines a set of software programs to control the storage, organization, management, and retrieval of an organization’s data in a database. The entire process of database management is handled by a specialist or a database manager also known as database administrator.
Prior to the DBMS approach, which came to develop in the 1970s, organization used file processing systems for organizing, storing, and processing data files. Data were stored in different files and were organized various ways. Processing the file proved to be bulky and economically not sustainable. Data redundancy was also a problem area. As such, a smooth data retrieval method was always an issue. Again as businesses grow in terms of size and volume, the need of an effective system in place was felt. All these factors led to the development and improvements of various database models in the 1970s and 1980s.
Today, a DBMS uses a variety of models, the most popular being the network model or relational model. As per the data structures or types, DBMS are categorized. Every model has a prewritten program which defines how data are stored, updated, or retrieved. This is how it works. An application program sends a request to the DBMS, which further sends an instruction to the operating system for transferring the requested data. Database programs also enable database administrators to change the information system as per your organization’s changing requirements. It is possible to add new data categories without disrupting the pre-existing system.
An organization may also use more than one model of DBMS. In a big organization where there are layers of business operations with different functionality, two different models can be utilized. There can be one database, which is used for daily transaction processing and there can be another model for conducting random analysis and inquiries.