Database

If you have been writing programs for some time, you know just how important it is to keep an organized system for recording, storing, and managing all the codes and information. Having to update data, ensure that there are no duplicate records, and retrieve data within a certain criteria is taxing and cumbersome without a good database management system (DBMS). Although there are many mainstream database management systems around, such as Oracle and MS Access, it’s good to know that you can get the same features and performance using an open source database. Here is a brief discussion on its advantages.

Benefits of using an open source database

As with other open-source applications, an open source database costs much less than its copyrighted counterparts. Aside from that, the freedom granted to users and developers to tweak and improve its source code and other components significantly helps an open source DBMS become more reliable and consistent. It provides the same quality of service that its more expensive proprietary equivalents can give.

Well-known brands of open source database

The most popular server database MySQL is an open source DBMS. Apart from MySQL, PostgreSQL, the Java-embeddable Apache Derby, Firebird, GNU SQL Server, SAP MaxDB, ScimoreDB, DXstore database system, HSQLDB, and CloudDB are among the leading brands of open source database management systems today. Drizzle and MariaDB are among the fork versions of MySQL.

Whether it is for personal or commercial use, an open source database can prove to be a reliable database management system. The best thing about using them (instead of proprietary databases) is that they are not as pricey, which is very important when you’re working on business management programs that are supposed to cut costs.

Software & Support Media announced the second Open Source Database Conference which will be held in Frankfurt, Germany on November 6 to 8, 2006. More than 500 IT developers from different parts of the globe attended the first conference. Over 15 speakers were present in the first conference which included luminaries and visionaries and numerous businesses that has reaped the benefits of the event.

The conference aims to provide the proper setting where the community can meet together. A place where experts could meet their peers and for businesses to show what they can offer to potential partners in networking. It is expected that the conference will attract delegates with different professional background; from database developers, administrators, architects to project managers. The event also provides an opportunity for one to share knowledge and brainstorm new ideas that will help in the development of open source. Several quality speakers will also be invited to discuss topics such as: the business of open source, database intelligence, database fundamentals and case studies. According to the schedule plan, the regular session will take about 70 minutes while the tutorial could last between 3 to 6 hours. This is a great opportunity for budding open source developers to get some insights in the business from the more experienced members of the open source community.

Imagine working as an inventory clerk in a big China wares warehouse. If you were making an initial inventory list of all the available items, it would take you a lot of time to catalogue at least 25,000 items. There must be an easier system to count and catalogue large number of items.

Making a written list may be appropriate but time-consuming. What about if you were tasked to not only make a list but also make a description of each item? An entire shelf of files might not suffice. These problems can be made lighter by using computer database systems. Database computer systems allow automated monitoring and filing of data.

You may imagine a data base as a filing cabinet with many files organized into categories. Files are organized for easier retrieval. Different categorizations may be employed but the most common is the alphabetical categorization.

The two main differences between file-cabinet system and a database system are in terms of bulkiness and in terms of efficiency in filing and retrieval. Furthermore database allows multiple formatting and categorization. Using database system is more convenient considering that the files are in electronic format which are also accessible through networks.

Information is useful as far as you can understand it. A volume of information, on the other hand, is only useful if you can manage it. A disorganized volume of information is nothing but a heap of junk. The main function of database software is to manage information. Archiving or filing and retrieval are the two main tasks which involve categorization, ranking and labeling of information. Examples of information are the pay roll of a big corporation or an inventory of books in a library which may need continuous updating. There are opens source database such as the SQLBase which is fast and easy to use software for Windows and Linux.

Information or data are not useful if they are unorganized and thereby cannot be retrieved or manipulated. The two main functions of data management are storing and retrieving data for useful purposes. A database is a digital or computerized filing system used for managing data. FoxPro and MS-Access are examples of database application software which can store, organize, retrieve, manipulate large amount of data such as payroll, inventory catalogue, mailing list, store transactions, orders and purchases, etc. The traditional file-cabinet system is becoming obsolete because of database. The main advantage of database over file-cabinet system is accessibility even over computer networks.