Assignment:

Evolution of Database Systems

Database Management System:
A database is an integrated collection of data records, files, and other database objects. A Database Management System (DBMS) is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and the use of a database. It allows organizations to conveniently develop databases for various applications.

Flat files - 1960s - 1980s:

This was the first version of Database Management System in the evolution of DBMS. In this system data is stored on a single large file in the form of a single table. The main disadvantage in this system was searching of data which takes a long time, this lead to the introduction of the concept of indexing in this system. It also has a lot of other disadvantages such as updating of data was a hard task, sorting of records takes a long time.

Hierarchical 1970s 1990s:

The drawbacks of Flat File Database System was removed in this system by the introduction of parent-child relationship between records in database. In this system data is stored in a tree like structure. The origin of the data is called the root from which several branches have data at different levels and the last level is called the leaf. It uses 1-to-many relationship system in which each parent can have many children but each child can only have one parent. The main drawback in this was if there is any modification or addition made to the structure then the whole structure needed alteration which made the task a

tedious one. In order to avoid this next system took its origin which is called as the Network Database System.

Network 1970s - 1990s:

Network Database System uses flexible way of representing objects and their relationships. It uses the concept of many-many relationships, it uses pointers to define the relationships. The difference that was made in this system was the introduction of data items in form of sets. Although this model was widely implemented and used, it failed to become dominant for some reasons As hardware became faster, the extra productivity and flexibility of the relational model led downfall of the network model in corporate enterprise usage.

Relational 1980s present:

In Relational Database System data get organized in form of tables and each record forms a row having many fields and attributes in it. The relational model was the first database model to be described in formal mathematical terms. And as the name states, this system also help in making relationships between tables. This database system was very effective in answering queries, sorting of data etc. so actually this system was very user friendly. After the relational model was defined, there were many attempts to compare and contrast the different models, so then this led to the emergence of new concepts and thus new database system.

Object-oriented 1990s present:

Object-oriented database management system is a database management system in which information is represented in the form of objects as used in objectoriented programming. Object databases are a niche field within the broader database management system (DBMS) market dominated by relational

database management systems. Object databases have been considered since the early 1980s and 1990s, but they have made little impact on mainstream commercial data processing, though there is some usage in specialized areas. Its disadvantages were such as, it shows lower efficiency when data is simple and relationships are simple, relational tables are simpler, late binding may slow access speed, more user tools exist for RDBMS.

Object-relational 1990s present:

Object-relational database management system is a database management system (DBMS) similar to a relational database, but with an objectoriented database model: objects, classes and inheritance are directly supported in database schemas and in the query language. In addition, it supports extension of the data model with custom data-types and methods. The basic goal of this system was to provide a bridge between relational databases and object-oriented databases. In object-relational databases, the approach is essentially that of Relational Databases: the data resides in the database and is manipulated collectively with queries in a query language; at the other extreme are Object Oriented Databases in which the database is essentially a persistent object store for software written in an object-oriented programming language. So this system too is integrated with an object oriented programming language.

Data warehousing 1980s present:

The data warehousing concept was introduced to provide an architectural model for the flow of data from operational systems to decision support environments. Database warehouse is a database used for reporting and analysis. The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems. A data warehouse maintains its functions in three layers:

y Staging, integration, and access. Staging is used to store raw data for use by developers. The integration layer is used to integrate data and to have a level of abstraction from users. The access layer is for getting data out for users. This definition of the data warehouse focuses on data storage. The main source of the data is cleaned, transformed, catalogued and made available for use by managers and other business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research and decision support. However, the means to retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the data dictionary are also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many references to data warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition for data warehousing includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform and load data into the repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata. The main disadvantages of the Data warehousing System were: 1. In order to maintain the integrity of facts and dimensions, loading of data in data warehouse from different operational systems is complicated. 2. It is difficult to modify the data warehouse structure if the organization adopting the dimensional approach changes the way in which it does business.

Web-enabled 1990s present:

A Web-Enabled Database uses the internet and web browser technology to deliver marketing messages, promotional and informational material, providing interactive access to business information, making queries, placing orders and updating records via Net and browser services The basic components of a web-enabled database are as, a permanent link to the Internet, a webserver, a firewall Web pages and software to deliver the active application.

Major advantages of this system due to which it is the most widely used DBMS are such as, it is easy to use as it is based on web based interface and everyone from anywhere in the world can easily access it to get the required information.

Reference:
y www.wikipedia.org