Here, we will learn the definition, characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of the Database Management System. Before learning about the DBMS, we must know about what is data, information, and database. So, firstly we are explaining about the data, information, and database.
What is Data?
Data is the raw facts or figures which the user wants to share, store, and process. Or, we can say that it is a collection of real-world entities or objects which need to be processed.
It is a raw material which is only accepted by the computer machine. The data can be exist in any form like text, picture, video, number, and bytes. Examples of data are: Age of a student, Marks scored by the student, Name of a student, Name of a city, etc.
What is Information?
Information is a set of data, which is processed, organized, structured, or presented in such a way as to be useful or meaningful to the user who receives it.
Examples of Information are:
Examples of Information are:
Percentage, Grade, and position of student, which are calculated by the given student’s data.
What is Database?
The Database is a collection of structured or non-structured related data. In simple words, we can say that it is a place where the data is actually stored. It stores the data in the form of tables, views, schema, reports, etc.
Following are the different type of databases:
- Cloud Database
- Centralization Database
- Distributed Database
- Graph Database
- NoSQL Database
- Object-Oriented Database
- Operational Database
- Relational Database
What is DBMS?
DBMS is an abbreviation of the Database Management System. Database Management System is system software which helps users for managing the data in the databases. It provides an interface to end-users for inserting, accessing, updating, and deleting the data in the database.
This management system provides security and protection to the data in the databases. If there is more than one user uses the same database, then the system also maintains the consistency of the data.
Some examples of DBMS are:
Some examples of DBMS are:
Oracle, MS SQL Server, SQLite, dBase, MySQL, IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, etc.
Characteristics of DBMS
Following are some characteristics or features of DBMS:
- It provides security to the data and removes the redundancy of the data.
- It provides multiple views of the same database for the different users.
- This system offers physical and logical data independence.
- It also allows multiple users to work on the same database at the same time.
- The database system follows the ACID properties, which helps in handling the transactions.
- It allows users to store any type of data in the database.
- It also allows creating a relationship among tables which makes the data more useful and connected.
Advantages of DBMS
Some of the advantages or benefits of Database Management System are discussed below:
1. Simple: This system provides a simple and logical view of data. We can easily implements the operations like insertion, updation, deletion on the data.
2. Data Sharing: This management system allows data sharing between any number of users and application programs at the same time. Users can access the database from the remote locations and also share the data among themselves.
3. Data Integrity: DBMS allows users to apply the integrity constraint on the data. By doing this, the system ensures that the stored data is correct and consistent.
4. Reduction in Data Redundancy: In the database, there is no duplicacy of the same data due to the centralized control of data by the Database Administrator.
5. Data Independence: The database management system provides data independence, which means that the changes done at one level do not affec the other levels of the database.
6. Data Security: The database Management system allows authorized users to access the database using their user name and password. It also provides privacy policies, which helps companies for improving data security.
7. Backup and Recovery: Database systems automatically take care of backup and recovery. If the system crashes or failures, then it restores the data to its previous condition.
8. Conflict Resolution: The Database Administrator (DBA) controls the database, so he/she should automatically resolve the conflicting requirements of various applications and users.
Disadvantages of DBMS
DBMS provides lots of advantages. But with the advantages also have some disadvantages. The disadvantages or limitations of the Database Management System are discussed below:
1. Cost: It is the first and main disadvantage of the database management system. The cost of purchasing and developing the software is high. And, the cost of upgrading the hardware for storing the data is also high. Both the hardware and software require maintenance, whose cost is so high.
2. Large Size of DBMS: Due to the wide functionality of DBMS, it needs more space to run in the main memory and requires a large amount of disk space for storing the data.
3. Efficiency is Low: Various software and application programs are made for only one problem. But, Database Management System is that software, which is used for many purposes, and due to this, its efficiency is low.
4. Performance: The performance of the traditional file-based system was very good for small firms and some particular applications. But, the performance of DBMS for the small firms is not good, because the speed of this system is very slow. So, it is not good for small firms due to performance.
5. Response is slow: As the database in the database system is centrally managed and accessed by multiple users online and offline. So, its response may be slow when multiple users access the same database.
3. Efficiency is Low: Various software and application programs are made for only one problem. But, Database Management System is that software, which is used for many purposes, and due to this, its efficiency is low.
4. Performance: The performance of the traditional file-based system was very good for small firms and some particular applications. But, the performance of DBMS for the small firms is not good, because the speed of this system is very slow. So, it is not good for small firms due to performance.
5. Response is slow: As the database in the database system is centrally managed and accessed by multiple users online and offline. So, its response may be slow when multiple users access the same database.