Database Management Systems

Developed in the 1960s by computer scientists who required an efficient storage and access mechanism for large data sets, database management systems (DBMS) have become a core component of present-day information systems. Database technology drives billions of transactions each day, from grocery store purchases to Web searches. The technology is also critical to research applications. DBMS facilitate efficient, scalable, secure storage of data and include query and manipulation tools that can be controlled via the standard structured query language (SQL). Properly applied database design techniques produce databases that eliminate data redundancy and provide for efficient queries across multiple tables. In geography, DBMS are used in multiple ways but are best known as a key component of geographic information systems (GIS), where they enable the storage ...