What are databases and database management systems?

Overview

A database is a collection of various types of data that one or more people may access. A database stores data in a systematic order. It stores data in the form of tables.

For example, let's suppose we have a student database with the information categories of:

• Roll_Number
• Name
• Class
• Branch

The database will look like this:

Usage of databases

Nowadays, databases are extensively used for different purposes. Some examples of the usage of databases are as follows:

• Hospitals use databases to store data related to patients.
• Educational institutes like schools and colleges use databases to store information related to students.
• Banks use databases to store information related to clients.
• Airline services use databases to store information related to passenger reservations.

Database management systems

Database management systems help us store and effortlessly retrieve data from a database. We can use them to create, manage, and alter the database.

By using a database management system, we can make data sharing easier, faster, and more secure within an organization. We can quickly save and access our data online with the help of SQL and other programming languages. They keep the data safe. In the case of a crash, our data is protected in log files.

Advantages of database management

The following are some of the advantages of utilizing DBMS:

• They make it easy to store and access data.
• We don't require big infrastructure to store data.
• Sharing of data becomes easy.
• We have better data backup and recovery options.
• We can use them to recover data from crashes.