Database management is a system for managing information that aids an organization’s business operations. It involves storing and distributing data it to users and applications and editing it when needed as well as monitoring changes in data and preventing data corruption due to unexpected failure. It is a component of the entire informational infrastructure of a company which supports decision-making in corporate growth, as well as compliance with laws like the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
The first database systems were invented in the 1960s by Charles Bachman, IBM and others. They developed into information management systems (IMS) that allowed the storage and retrieve huge amounts of data for a broad range of uses, from calculating inventory to supporting complicated financial accounting and human resources functions.
A database is a collection of tables that organizes data according to an established pattern, such as one-to-many relationships. It uses primary key to identify records, and also allows cross-references among tables. Each table has a set of fields, referred to as attributes, which provide information about the data entities. Relational models, developed by E. F. “Ted” Codd in the 1970s at IBM and IBM, are among the most widely used type of database currently. The design is based on normalizing the data, making it more easy to use. It is also simpler to update data because it does not require the changing of several databases.
Most DBMSs can support multiple types of databases by providing different internal and external levels of organization. The internal level addresses costs, scalability, and other operational issues including the layout of the physical storage. The external level is how the database is represented in user interfaces and other applications. It can include a combination of different external views (based on different data models) and may also include virtual tables that are computed using generic data to improve performance.