Introduction
Due to the recent increase in sales in the company, the sales team and other departments have been experiencing data redundancy and inconsistency problem, integrity problem, difficulties in accessing the data, data isolation, and many other many problems concerning data in the company. With my years of experience, I and the team did an internal system forensic investigation and noticed that we have been using a traditional file system to store our massive growing data – which is no longer suitable for our company. Therefore, we decided to discuss how we could implement the new model of data storage – that is the implementation of a relational database.
Brief Overview of Relational Database
A relational database is a type of data storage structure that contains data stored in tables of related data. The tables consist of columns and rows. Data is stored in the rows while the columns are used to access individual or multiple data. The table contains an extra column that contains stores a unique identifier, called a key, of a record and points to other related data on another table. Introducing this modern technology to our company will bring a solution to the earlier mentioned problems. The following describes how the new database brings new changes to operations in the company.
Information Capturing
In this aspect, most to feed that database will come entirely from the existing user interface. We decided to maintain our current system because we noticed there was no problem with the user interface. However, third-party software called database management system will be introduced. This software will act as an intermediary between the database and the user interface. It will be responsible for various operations such as the security of data among other operations concerning the data passing to and from the database.
Manipulation of Data
Introducing a relational database in our system will bring about introducing a new data manipulation language (DML) called Structured Query Language (SQL). This is the primary language used for writing commands that alters the data in our database. A few operations done by this worldwide used language include; deleting, updating, inserting records in our database. Our experienced team is already proficient with this language and it will be implemented as soon as this proposal is approved.
Management of Data
This aspect will be handled by the company’s database administrators with the help of special software called Database Management System (DBMS). Some of the important functions of DBMS include data dictionary management, data storage management, managing data security, data integrity management, and multi-user access control among other useful functionalities. This software will be preserved only for the database admins. Access by unauthorized persons could be a big risk for the company’s data. Our database specialist proposed MSQL to be the company’s DBMS.
Data Sharing
This mechanism will be also be provided by and controlled by a DBMS. This is a primary feature provided by this software. It keeps data in a centralized server in such a way that multiple users or applications can access the same file but cannot edit the file at the same time. This helps to maintain the data integrity of the company. The DBMS manages to control user editing of the files by using locking mechanisms.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, I and my team were able to determine all the beneficial factors the relational database will bring to our company. In summary, we found that the relational database will help the entire company with data sharing mechanisms, centralized and organized data storage, reduction of data redundancies, inconsistency, and improved data integrity. Big companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, and many more companies using this mode of data storage and management can bear witness to the benefits of adopting relational databases.
References
fw_error_www. (2022). Oracle.Com. https://www.oracle.com/ke/database/what-is-a-relational-database/#:%7E:text=A%20relational%20database%20is%20a,of%20representing%20data%20in%20tables.
GeeksforGeeks. (2021b, September 30). SQL | DDL, DQL, DML, DCL and TCL Commands. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/sql-ddl-dql-dml-dcl-tcl-commands/
Functions of Database Management System (DBMS) – QS Study. (2022). Qsstudy.Com. https://qsstudy.com/functions-of-database-management-system-dbms/
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