Analyzing the Use of Databases

Essay by joneskUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, May 2004

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Analyzing the Use of Databases

Selecting a database platform for your organization's infrastructure can be an overwhelming project. IT professionals faced with this daunting task may have no prior database experience and are suddenly thrown into an arena full of vaguely familiar terms and a wide range of products with drastically differing price tags. My organization uses the Oracle database.

We will look at the database powerhouse of the database field - server-based databases. These systems have become household names due to the great opportunities they offer organizations to manage large amounts of data quickly, efficiently and in a manner that enables many users to access and update the data simultaneously. If you're able to meet the hefty price tag, a server-based database can provide you with a comprehensive data management solution.

The benefits achieved through the use of a server-based system are diverse. Let's take a look at a few of the more prominent gains achieved:

· Flexibility.

Unlike their desktop cousins, server-based databases can handle just about any data management problem you can throw at them. Developers love these systems because they have programmer-friendly application programmer interfaces (APIs) that provide for the rapid development of database oriented custom applications.

· Powerful performance. Server-based databases are as powerful as you want them to be. The major players are able to efficiently utilize just about any reasonable hardware platform that you're able to construct for them. Modern databases can manage multiple high-speed processors, clustered servers, high bandwidth connectivity and fault tolerant storage technology.

· Scalability. This attribute goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. If you're willing to provide the necessary hardware resources, server databases are able to gracefully handle a rapidly expanding amount of users and/or data.

As with anything in life, it's not all peaches and cream with server-based...