Relational Database Management System

Relational Database Management System

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Introduction

RDBMS is an acronym for relational database management system. The system is structured in form of tables, database fields and records. In most cases, each RDBMS consist of database table rows whereas each database table row is made up of a single or more database table fields (Pathak, 2008). The RDBMS is designed to store data in a collection of tables which may be related to the database table columns. Most common RDBMS systems use SQL as the database query language. Efforts to first develop RDBMS began in 1974 when the IBM Company developed system R which was a basis of developed of an advanced RDBMS system. However, in 1979, oracle became the first ever RDBMS system that was released by Oracle Corporations Company limited (Ramakrishnan el al, 2000). There are several types of RDBMS which are SAP Sybase, DB2, Teradata, SAP Sybase adaptive server enterprise as well as Informix (Pathak, 2008). For ages RDBMS has been widely used and replacing it is among the hardest huddles that programmers face today. In fact, in the near future it will still be hard to phase out RDBMS because of a number of reasons.

The Relational database model is easy to be modified and optimized in terms of design to improve performance when dealing with applications and data sets. Unlike XML which has shortcomings in terms of improvement and modifications, the systems can be improved with ease to accommodate high processor speeds and also decrease memory and storage costs. Such advantage gives the system an upper hand over other systems and also allows the system administrators to come up with systems that are fast, efficient and have minimal performance flaws.

Similarly, RDBMS provides a wide range of services that its immediate substitutes such as XML cannot. For instance, RDBMS system has a well-designed support that accommodates multiple users. The atomic transactions and referential integrity of RDBMS system is more advanced and works way better than the XML system (Ramakrishnan el al, 2000). The user as well does not need to enter the entire database into the system before accessing it that is contrary to Hadoop which are rough in manner because the software in most cases is under active development. Other flaws that RDBMS has over its substitutes is the ability to create an optimal access to through indexes and compiled queries as well as triggering already stored procedures and calculated columns.

Another reason why RDBMS may not be easily replaced in future is the support generic language (Structured Query Language) that it uses. The language is simple to understand and use because it uses English words and phrases. It is also easy to add non-SQL, specified key words, features and functions to the language (Ramakrishnan el al, 2000).

CouchBD is another system that can pose a threat to RDBMS system because you do not need to model the real world data in order to start working on the queries. This system too avails the required data in JSON and it is stored within a short time in the DB. The JSON structure is designed to avoid performing table joins (Pathak, 2008). Such a technique creates an improvement on the old-fashioned object related mapping that is widely used today. Although the CouchBD system can be good, it cannot effectively compete the RDBMS because the RDBMS system is already established and undergone several tests that have proved its effectiveness as compared to the Couch BD that is still under modification and further development.

As compared to other systems, the RDBMS is fast, standardized, easy to be understood and also ACID- compliant. It is much easy for a developer to be able to code another application alongside a vendor’s RDBMS and shift it to another one with ease. The system also is essential in carrying out several operations, which can be compared to an integration point for a number of applications. The developers of other systems such as DBMS are unable to develop a system that has an inbuilt locking, and transactions management ability. Such advantage makes RDBMS irreplaceable in the near future because multiple users can access data when it is being changed and incidences of collisions between users are limited. The system also is designed to prevent its users from accessing partially updated information.

Conclusion

In as a much as RDBMS system can be the most preferred system, it has a number of disadvantages the first being cost. The software and expertise come with an extremely high price tag. The cost of software licenses is usually high. To add on that, system maintenance is also expensive. Accesses to data in the relational database require high level training and experience which are linked to investment of both time and money. The system as compared to its competitors such as Hadoop, is very complicated because of its design. The system requires breaking of data into complicated forms that need division of data into smaller data types that can be supported by the database (Ramakrishnan el al, 2000). For RDBMS to effectively remain dominant in future and effectively dominate over Hadoop it should be able to overcome its flaws before its competitors exploit such weakness. The reason why Hadoop is a serious competitor to the dominance of RDBMS is that in as much as RDBMS has been designed in a simple and easily comprehended SQL language the later too uses Java, a language that even a non IT expert can understand with ease (Pathak, 2008).

References

(2011). An Efficient Middleware for Storing and Querying XML Data in Relational Database Management System. Journal of Computer Science , 7(2), 314-319.

Patent Issued for System and Method for Retrieving Data from a Relational Database Management System. (2014, January 1). Journal of Engineering, 2, 3.

Pathak, N. (2008). Database management system. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.

Ramakrishnan, R., & Gehrke, J. (2000). Database management systems (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

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