What is a database?Databases are basically containers for data OR an organized collection of data; it can be used to store, organize, protect, and retrieve data. Generally stored and accessed electronically from a computer system. Where databases are more complex they are often developed using formal design and modeling techniques.
The database management system (DBMS) is the software that interacts with end-users, applications, and the database itself to capture and analyze the data.
Types of Databases
- Centralized database
- Distributed database
- Personal database
- End-user database
- Commercial database
- NoSQL database
- Operational database
- Relational database
- Cloud database
- Object-oriented database
- Graph database
Four Main Functional groups of Databases
Data definition – Creation, modification, and removal of definitions that define the organization of the data in the database.
Update data – Insertion, modification, and deletion of the actual data.
Retrieval data – Providing information in a form directly usable or for further processing by other applications. The retrieved data may be made available in a form basically the same as it is stored in the database or in a new form obtained by altering or combining existing data from the database.
Administration – Registering and monitoring users, enforcing data security, monitoring performance, maintaining data integrity, dealing with concurrency control, and recovering information that has been corrupted by some event such as an unexpected system failure.