Decoding Database Basics

Data

Data is a collection of facts in the form of words, numbers, or even pictures. Data contains information and facts about a person, object, event, observation, or anything else, that can be measured/recorded.

Data is one of the most critical assets of any business. It is used and collected practically everywhere. Your bank stores data about you: your name, address, phone number, account number, etc. Your credit card company and your PayPal account also store data about you.

What is a database?

Data is important; so, it needs to be secure, and it needs to be stored and accessed quickly. The answer is a "database". So, what is a database? Databases are everywhere and used every day, but they are largely taken for granted.

A database is a repository of data. It is a program that stores data and also provides the functionality for adding, modifying, and querying that data.

The main purpose of a database is to handle a large amount of information by storing, retrieving, and managing data. Nowadays, almost every website on the world wide web is dynamic and handled through databases. For example, an airline website that checks the availability of flight tickets is an example of a dynamic website that uses a database.  

There are different kinds of databases with different requirements. Some examples are MySQL, Sybase, Oracle, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, etc. Modern databases are managed by the database management system (DBMS), which will be discussed later in this chapter.

Evolution of database

Databases have been evolving since the early 1960s and have gone through several generations. The journey started with hierarchical databases, network databases, relational databases, NoSQL Databases, and current cloud databases. Each stage aimed to address the limitations of its predecessor, offering improved ways to manage complex data relationships and queries. For more valuable insights on databases, make sure to get immerse yourself in our Microsoft SQL Server Online Training.

Typically, a cylindrical object like the following one is used to display the image of a database: