SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

COURSE INSY 258 - DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

COURSE LECTURER - MADAUDA, S. P

PRESENTED BY

PHILORIAN M. MPENDAYE

ID. No. 201101022

Question: Explain Database Management System Concepts with Diagram.

Date of Submission: 30th Day of October, 2013

1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

1.0 MEANING OF KEY TERMS 1

1.1 Data 1
1.2 Database 1
1.3 Database Management System 1

2.0 CONCEPTS OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 2

2.1 Server 3
2.2 Supercomputer 3
2.3 Database Management System 4
2.4 Security 4
2.5 Cloud 5
2.6 Clients 6

3.0 ADVANTAGES OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 7

3.1 Improved data sharing 7

3.2 Improved data security 7
3.3 Better data integration 7
3.4 Minimized data inconsistency 7
3.5 Improved data access 8
3.6 Improved decision making 8
3.7 Increased end-user productivity 8

4.0 CONCLUSION 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY 10

i
1.0 MEANING OF KEY TERMS

1.1 Data

According to Gupta, Kumar (2007) data is a fact, something upon which an inference is
based. Data is the preliminary information. It is raw of facts or primary information. Data
is used for describing an attributable about activities of business or person or any other
thing living or non-living. Data can be any fact, observation, assumption or occurrence.
Name, time, roll numbers, marks, percentage, grade all are the examples of data. Data
represent information of the real world known as facts that are recorded in media or
stationary and have implicit meaning.

1.2 Database

Gill, P. S. (2008:1) defines database as a collection of logically related data that can be
recorded. Database is the collection of processed or unprocessed information. The
information stored in the database must have the implicit properties such as must
represent some real world aspect and must comprise a logically coherent collection of
data, which have well understood inherent meaning.

Database provides a secure and survivable medium for storage and retrieval of the
data. In the real world, data have structure, related to one another and have constraints.
The different users of the data need to create, access and manipulate the data.
Database provides mechanism to achieve these objectives without compromising
security and integrity of data. If data are shared, if it is persistent, if users want it to be
secure and easy to access and manipulate, then use of a database management
system is the best available alternative.

1.3 Database Management System

According to Gill, P. S (2008:1) database system is generally defined as a collection of

logically related data and a set of programmes to access data. Database system

1
comprises two components namely database and Database Management System.
Thus, Gill, P. S (2008) defines Database Management System as a set of programme
for defining, creation, maintenance and manipulation of a database. The primary goal of
Database Management System is to provide an environment that is both convenient
and efficient to use in retrieving and storing database information.

2.0 CONCEPTS OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Database Management System is a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs

to access those data. This is a collection of related data with an implicit meaning and
hence is a database. The collection of data, usually referred to as the database,
contains information relevant to an enterprise. The primary goal of a Database
Management System is to provide a way to store and retrieve database information that
is both convenient and efficient. With aid of the diagram below, the concepts of the
Database Management System can be illustrated as follows:

CLIENT
SECURITY

CLIENT

CLOUD
SERVER DBMS

CLIENT

CLIENT

SUPERCOMPUTER

2
Server

A server is a system that responds to requests across a computer network to provide, or

help to provide, a network service. Servers can be run on a dedicated computer, which
is also often referred to as "the server", but many networked computers are capable of
hosting servers. In many cases, a computer can provide several services and have
several servers running.

Comer, Douglas E and Stevens, David L (1998) connote that “servers operate within
client server architecture; servers are computer programmes running to serve the
requests of other programmes, the clients.” Thus, the server performs some tasks on
behalf of clients. The clients typically connect to the server through the network but may
run on the same computer. In the context of Internet Protocol (IP) networking, a server
is a programme that operates as a socket listener. Servers often provide essential
services across a network, either to private users inside a large organization or to public
users via the internet.

Supercomputer

According to Stork, David G (1998) supercomputer is defined as a state-of-the-art,

extremely powerful computer capable of manipulating massive amounts of data in a
relatively short time. Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for
specialized scientific and engineering applications that must handle very large
databases or do a great amount of computation, among them meteorology, animated
graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear energy research and weapon simulation,
and petroleum exploration. There are two approaches to the design of supercomputers.

The supercomputer is a computer that performs at or near the currently highest

operational rate for computers. The supercomputer is typically used for scientific and
engineering applications that must handle very large databases or do a great amount of
computation or both. 

3
Database Management System

Data Management System means that raw data, previously copied manually from paper
to punched cards and later into data-entry terminals, is now fed into the system from a
variety of sources, including Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Electronic Funds
Transfer (EFT) and direct customer entry through the Internet. The master file concept
has been largely displaced by database management systems, and static reporting
replaced or augmented by ad-hoc reporting and direct inquiry, including downloading of
data by customers.

The ubiquity of the Internet and the personal computer has been the driving force in the
transformation of data processing to the more global concept of Data Management
Systems. The central component of Database Management System is the kernel
software, usually written in C or FORTRAN, which controls the processing of queries,
access paths to data, storage management, indexing and multi user read/update
operations.

Security

Security concerns the use of a broad range of information security controls to protect
databases (potentially including the data, the database applications or stored functions,
the database systems, the database servers and the associated network links) against
compromises of their confidentiality, integrity and availability.

Security involves various types or categories of controls, such as technical,

procedural/administrative and physical. Database security is a specialist topic within the
broader realms of computer security, information security and risk management.
Security risks to database systems include unauthorized or unintended activity or
misuse by authorized database users, database administrators, or network/systems
managers, or by unauthorized users or hackers such as inappropriate access to
sensitive data, metadata or functions within databases, or inappropriate changes to the
database programs, structures or security configurations.

4
Also, malware infections causing incidents such as unauthorized access, leakage or
disclosure of personal or proprietary data, deletion of or damage to the data or
programs, interruption or denial of authorized access to the database, attacks on other
systems and the unanticipated failure of database services. Overloads, performance
constraints and capacity issues resulting in the inability of authorized users to use
databases as intended.

Physical damage to database servers caused by computer room fires or floods,

overheating, lightning, accidental liquid spills, static discharge, electronic
breakdowns/equipment failures and obsolescence. Design flaws and programming bugs
in databases and the associated programs and systems, creating various security
vulnerabilities such as unauthorized privilege escalation, data loss/corruption,
performance degradation; and Data corruption and/or loss caused by the entry of invalid
data or commands, mistakes in database or system administration processes, sabotage
or criminal damage.

Cloud

Cloud is a distributed database that delivers computing as a service instead of a

product. It is the sharing of resources, software, and information between multiply
devices over a network which is mostly the internet. Cloud connects to a database that
is being run on the cloud and has varying degrees of efficiency. Some are manually
configured, some are preconfigured, and some are native. Native cloud databases are
better equipped and more stable that those that are modified to adapt to the cloud.

Most database services offer web-based consoles, which the end user can use to
provision and configure database instances. Database services consist of a database
manager component, which controls the underlying database instances using a service
Application Programming Interface (North, Ken (2011). The service Application
Programming Interface is exposed to the end user, and permits users to perform
maintenance and scaling operations on their database instances. For example, the

5
Amazon Relational Database Service's service API enables creating a database
instance, modifying the resources available to a database instance, deleting a database
instance, creating a snapshot of a database, and restoring a database from a snapshot.

Database services make the underlying software stack transparent to the user - the
stack typically includes the operating system, the database and third-party software
used by the database. The service provider is responsible for installing, patching and
updating the underlying software stack. Database services take care of scalability and
high availability of the database.

Client

Clients are the persons throughout the organization who add, delete and modify data in
the database and who request or receive information from it. All users’ interactions with
the database must be routed through the Database Management System. The following
are the types of users of Database Management System:

(i) Application programmers or Ordinary users: These users write application

programs to interact with the database. Application programs can be written in
some programming language such a COBOL, PL/I, C++, JAVA or some higher
level fourth generation language.
(ii) End Users: These are the users, who use the applications developed. End
users need not know about the working, database design, and the access
mechanism. End users are of two types: Direct users are the users who se the
computer, database system directly, by following instructions provided in the
user interface. They interact using the application programs already developed,
for getting the desired result. Indirect users are those users, who desire benefit
from the work of Database Management System indirectly.
(iii) Database Administrator: Database Administrator is the person which makes the
strategic and policy decisions regarding the data of the enterprise, and who
provide necessary technical support for implementing. Therefore, Database
Administrator is responsible for overall control of the system at a technical level.

6
(iv) System Analyst: System Analyst determines the requirement of end users,
especially naïve and parametric end users and develops specifications for
transactions that meet these requirements.

3.0 ADVANTAGES OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Database Management System serves as the intermediary between the user and the
database. The database structure itself is stored as a collection of files, and the only
way to access the data in those files is through the Database Management System. The
Database Management System receives all application requests and translates them
into the complex operations required to fulfill those requests. The different advantages
of Database Management System are as follows:

Improved data sharing: This is one of the advantages whereby the Database
Management System helps create an environment in which end users have better
access to more and better-managed data. Such access makes it possible for end users
to respond quickly to changes in their environment.

Improved data security: This is another advantage of Database Management System

whereby the more users access the data, the greater the risks of data security
breaches. Corporations invest considerable amounts of time, effort, and money to
ensure that corporate data are used properly. Database Management System provides
a framework for better enforcement of data privacy and security policies.

Better data integration: Wider access to well-managed data promotes an integrated

view of the organization’s operations and a clearer view of the big picture. It becomes
much easier to see how actions in one segment of the company affect other segments.

Minimized data inconsistency: Data inconsistency exists when different versions of

the same data appear in different places (Comer, Douglas E 1993). For example, data
inconsistency exists when a company’s sales department stores a sales
representative’s name as “Bill Brown” and the company’s personnel department stores

7
that the same person’s name as “William G. Brown,” or when the company’s regional
sales office shows the price of a product as TSHS. 245,950.50 and its national sales
office show the same product its price as TSHS. 243,750.50. The probability of data
inconsistency is greatly reduced in a properly designed database.

Improved data access: The Database Management System makes it possible to

produce quick answers to ad hoc queries (Okereke, G. C. 2009). From a database
perspective, a query is a specific request issued to the Database Management System
for data manipulation. For example, to read or update the data, simply put a query is a
question, and an ad-hoc query is a spur-of-the-moment question. The Database
Management System sends back an answer to the application. For example, end users,
when dealing with large amounts of sales data, might want quick answers to questions
(ad hoc queries) such as:
(i) What was the Tanzanian shilling volume of sales by product during the last two
years?
(ii) What is the sales bonus figure for each of our sales personnel during the past
four months?
(iii) How many of our customers have credit balances of TSHS. 4,818,750 or more?

Improved decision making: Better managed data and improved data access make it
possible to generate better-quality information on which better decisions are based
(North, Ken 2011). The quality of the information generated depends on the quality of
the underlying data. Data quality is a comprehensive approach to promoting the
accuracy, validity, and timeliness of the data. While the Database Management System
does not guarantee data quality, it provides a framework to facilitate data quality
initiatives.

Increased end-user productivity: The availability of data, combined with the tools that
transform data into usable information, empowers end users to make quick, informed
decisions that can make the difference between success and failure in the global
economy.

8
4.0 CONCLUSION

Database Management System facilitates functions including defining database schema

such as defining of data types, relationship amongst the data and specification of the
integrity constraints to be enforced on the database.

Database Management System serves the function of manipulation of database

whereby it must facilitate the insertion of new data into database, update of changed
information, deletion of data, which might have been rendered and reading of stored
information including generation of reports.

Database Management System must enable concurrent access of shared data by

multiple users, while preserving the consistency of the data. Database Management
System must protect the database against unauthorized or malicious access. In the
event of system failure, Database Management System must facilitate database
recovery.

9
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gill, P. S (2008). Database Management System. I. K. International Pvt Limited. New

Delhi, India

Gupta, Kumar (2007). Taxonomy of Database Management System. First Edition.

Firewall Media. New Delhi, India

Kedar, Seema (2009). Database Management System. Technical Publications. Pune,

India

Okereke, Gerald (2009). Database Management System. National Open University of

Nigeria. Abuja, Nigeria

10