- What is a Database?
- Why do Databases Come into Existence?
- What is DBMS?
- Why DBMS?
- Database Management System Types
- Top Application of DBMS
- 1. Online Shopping
- 2. Reservation System
- 3. Telephone Companies
- 4. Manufacturing Companies
- 5. Military
- 6. Human Resources management
- 7. Universities and Colleges
- 8. Banking
- 9. Income Tax Department
- 10. Library Management System
- 11. Social Media Sites
- 12. Mobile Games
- 13. Mobile Application
- Conclusion
- Additional Resources
DBMS stands for Database Management System. But before understanding the Database management system and DBMS Applications, let’s first understand what a database is and why it came into existence, and then what is the database management system.
What is a Database?
The basic definition of the database can be said to be the collection of databases. But what does this mean? Let’s understand this with the help of a real-world example.
Consider you are building an application for your products to sell online. So you need to keep track of some of the main components like –
- User Credentials.
- User Address.
- User Order History.
- User payments.
- Product Details.
- Stock Details, etc.
These all are data related to each customer as well as the product. Now to store all these things, you need some storage. And that is the database.
Now if we connect this example with the formal definition, then we can say that the collection of data (all details related to the product and user) is the database.
Why do Databases Come into Existence?
Databases started becoming more popular in the 80s and 90s when the data started becoming more popular. Consider companies like Google, it has lots of data, even PetaBytes of data generated daily. Similarly for Facebook also. It has lots of user data. And this data needs to be stored. Because the data helps across the various fields in computer science. So this is the fundamental reason why databases came into existence.
What is DBMS?
DBMS is a database management system. We have already read the overview of what a database is and why it came into existence. Now the database management system states itself with the name, that is management of the database.
This means, how we can manage our database so that we can get the data from the database or store the data in the database in a very effective way.
Why DBMS?
Before the databases, the data are stored in a file using comma-separated values. That we call it the (.csv) file. Storing data in (.csv) files is all good when there are small data. But for large data, it is not a good idea to store the data in the (.csv) file. Because searching data from files and storing (updating) data in the files is itself a major task. And making it efficient can’t be managed by every software engineer.
So to solve this problem the database management system came into existence. Database Management System is the software that is responsible for accessing and storing data from the database efficiently. In the end, data are stored on the drives. But how it should be stored and how efficiently the things related to these are managed by DBMS Software.
Wherever there is the requirement of accessing the data from the database, then that needs to be asked of the DBMS software and DBMS Software gives the data. DBMS is the manager of the data.
In the above figure, the user need not be a human, it can be software also that internally wants data for performing operations on it.
Database Management System Types
At the time when databases started becoming popular, then at that time, Relational Database was often used. Here Relation means tables. So a relational database is a database in which the data are stored in a table. And when there are multiple tables then there are some relations between these tables. This relation is formed because of avoiding the redundancy of data. There are many techniques used for removing the redundancy of data. Relational Databases are supported by languages like – SQL (Structured Query Language).
These days when the whole thing is data, then the most popular type of database used is a Non-Relational Database. In which the data don’t store in the form of Tabular form. The data are modelled in other forms. Database language-supported non-relational data stores are – MongoDB, Firebase, Amazon DynamoDB, Cassandra, HBase, etc.
Top Application of DBMS
Database Management systems are widely used, for playing games to shopping online. Let’s understand the applications of DBMS in real life-
1. Online Shopping
We all must have purchased stuff online. We do what is, simply create an account on an E-commerce company’s website like Flipkart, Amazon, etc. And place the order of the product we require. And these companies keep a record of all of our information like name, phone, email, address, orders, etc.
Not only the customer information, but these companies also store the data that belongs to themselves for fulfilling the customer requirements like – Products List, Quantity available, purchases, sales, etc.
So these companies are using the database to store our information. And managing their database, they are using database management software.
In the above image, Online shopping applications use Database and Database Management System software at the backend to serve the services to the customers.
2. Reservation System
We all have reserved seats in many places like- Movie theatres, Train Tickets, Airline tickets, etc. While booking, we are required to provide our details so that a particular seat is reserved with us. So here also these reservations systems are using the database and database management system for achieving this. The data stores are – Customer name, train number, price, date, etc. And these details are required to identify the correct person during the trip.
3. Telephone Companies
Telephone companies can’t even survive without databases and Database management systems. We all are using sim cards for calling and for internet access. And we might even wonder how these mobile operator companies keep track of the daily data limit, as well as the calls we made. They are using the database management software and database for storing our data. They store the data and generate the mobile bills as per our usage. That is all achieved with the help of the DBMS. Not even only mobile companies, Internet Service providers, etc are also using DBMS.
4. Manufacturing Companies
Manufacturing companies usually keep a record of the products they build and for that, they are using a database and database management system. DBMS helps a lot in manufacturing companies because a giant manufacturing company (ex Samsung Manufacturing company for Display) is manufacturing tons of products daily. And also they are selling them to different companies. So keeping these records with the help of DBMS becomes very easy to manage.
5. Military
Military information is very crucial information. And every country has military and details of the soldiers. This information is kept very securely and that security feature is provided by the DBMS. The government stores military information like – Details of the soldiers, Operations performed by soldiers, locations, etc.
6. Human Resources management
Every large company has its Human Resource Team that takes care of all the things related to employees in the company – Employee Salary, Employee Other Benefits, Employees’ Other services like Leaves Taxation, etc. So here also the Database management System is extensively used. Because it creates ease in maintaining all these things.
7. Universities and Colleges
Universities have to deal with lots of student data, courses in which the students are enrolled, Professors teaching for particular subjects, departments, Colleges attached to it, etc. And maintaining these records is very cumbersome without the help of Databases. So here also the database management system is used to keep the details of all these things.
8. Banking
Banking is the palace where a database management system is the main thing on which the bank operations can be performed. Bank stores information related to the customers like available account balances, transactions, loans, etc. And also the details related to the bank’s operation.
Previously, the banking operations were performed with the registers. In which the officials maintain the ledger. And the person depositing the money can only withdraw the money from the same branch. But with the help of databases, it becomes easy to manage these all things and global access for the customer of their money.
9. Income Tax Department
Every person has a unique number, with the help of this number the income tax department keeps track of all the details related to the person. Like – Income, Tax Paid, Credit Score, etc. And these all are centrally managed by the income tax department by connecting the person’s pieces of information from the banks with the help of a database. So here also Database Management Systems are used for maintaining all of these records.
10. Library Management System
Libraries have books, and usually, the library provides the books to the customers for reading, and then the customer returns the book to the library. So which customer has taken which book, what is the due date to return the book, what are the charges on taking that book, etc all need to be managed. So here also databases are used to manage all these records effectively.
11. Social Media Sites
We all have an account on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. But have we wondered how we can log in and see the posts of our friends that we are connected to on social media? Or how friends are connected with our account? These all are managed with the help of a database management system. Social media sites usually store our information to make all operations possible.
12. Mobile Games
We all have played online mobile games. In that, we created an account, and the character we have earned, coins earned, levels, etc are stored. So how are these all possible? These all are possible with the help of the database and database management system so the data received by us is very fast with low latency.
13. Mobile Application
Mobile applications like contacts, in which we store the contact number and names of the people are also using the small database in our phones. And also other core operations on mobile like settings, user accounts, mobile passwords, etc are using database and database management systems to store all these things.
Conclusion
Database Management System is an essential part of data to manage. It has a lot of the real-world applications listed above. Every digital gadget that stored any kind of piece of information has a database running somewhere behind. In the ongoing technology evolution, data is everything. These data are scattered. So to manage these data, we need a database management system that helps in managing these data. And large tech giants like Google, Amazon, etc are extensively using the DBMS to organize their data.
