Database Management System

QUESTION 1 

Analyse key issues that could arise in application of databases within organisational environments
ANSWER: the key issues that could arise in application of databases within organisational environments are:

1. Increased costs: as the size of the database will increase with time so will be the effort to maintain it and the memory to store it. This will increase the cost of the overall database.
2. Complexity: as the database size will increase, so will be the size of tables thereby making it complex for the employees to maintain it.
3. Lack of qualified personnel: there may not be enough personnel and with required skills who could maintain or operate the data efficiently.

The changing needs of the company may require updated in the database and its technology and thus there will be issues related to database creation and management.

QUESTION 2 

Critically evaluate the features and advantages of database management systems in an organization and compare these advantages to that of an organisation storing its information in a flat file.
ANSWER: DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM has the following features:

• Used for data storage of high volume of data which has be regularly updated or accessed.
• Create a file system for Transactional support
• Use of data for purpose of services like data warehousing, data extraction or OLTP
• Implementing multi user functionality so that multiple users can use and update the database
• To create backup of the data of an entire system for recovery purposes.
• To automate the data by creation of a DBMS.
• To promote services like data independence.
• To make data portable over different platforms.
• To help run the businesses because “without data there is no business”.
• To create a relational records for applications over the web

The advantages of the database management system over flat file system are: 

• It provides a greater flexibility because even if the application changes, it will affect the database.
• It can be easily used for large amount of data thereby making the handling easy and efficient.
• It can be used for simultaneous online processing like bank transactions, online shopping and OLTP applications, ATMs etc.
• It makes data consistent and atomic in nature which is not possible in flat file system
• It makes the data redundancy free which is not possible in flat file system
• Has provision for authorised access of the data, that is, we can create different views of the data for different users.
• It can be used for activities like data mining and business decision making.
• For maintenance of data integrity which is not present in flat files.
• Easy Database maintenance on regular basis which is a tedious task in flat files
• Provides data independence from the physical and application level which cannot be seen in flat files.