Application System Databases

Most application systems either manage or read data from one or more computer databases.

A database could be a set of flat files stored on or disk drive or it could consist of database tables that are managed by a Database Management System (DBMS).

A Data Base Management System is special software that manages the organization, storage, access, security and integrity of data in a structured database.

The most widely used data base management systems today are Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, ASE and MySQL.

Some Data Base Management Systems can be accessed directly using common programming languages.  Others, however, use their own proprietary language for interacting with the database.

 Many DBMS applications also provide reporting and query tools to view data in the database.

There are different types of DBMSs:  relational, network and hierarchical. The most widely commonly used type of DBMS today is the Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS).