Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Database management is crucial for organizations

In the simplest sense, as the term suggests, database management is the management of data. Of course, it is implied that database management became a major discipline mainly because of the humungous amount of data that need to be managed. Organizations typically have not just huge amounts of data; their data is diffuse and complex, too. This is why database management has evolved into a full field.
Database management can be considered “…the monitoring, administration, and maintenance of the databases and database groups in (an) enterprise”. From this, and given the nature of the huge volumes of databases that organizations typically handle; it is clear that a database management system: a) manages very large volumes of data; b) efficiently supports access to this huge amount of data; c) supports multiple sets of data without causing mayhem by understanding their relationship with each other.

Important elements of database management
Database management is of critical importance to organizations, since sensitive data are stored in the databases. There are two aspects that database management needs looking into: a) monitoring these databases; b) assessing the strength and performance of the databases. A brief looksee into each of these:

Monitoring: A database monitoring system has to be comprehensive, because it has to monitor the entire data across the organization. The aim of having a monitoring system is that it helps the organization identify the problems in its database environment that is hindering its performance. Most database management systems use data from the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) for displaying performance information and starting database alerts.

Assessing the performance: The key to assessing the performance of database management systems is to first monitor, from where assessment takes off. A comprehensive diagnosis, which is what monitoring does, is the basis for assessment. Database management systems usually allow users to access the Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM), which allows the AWR to give snapshots of database activity for a set period. This is used to provide recommendations for better usage.

References:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/database_management_system_DBMS.html

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