Types of Databases

Owned by Computer Science Department
Aug 01, 2023
2 min read

 

There are many popular databases, but some of the most widely used include:

  1. MySQL: An open-source relational database management system commonly used in web applications and data warehousing.

  2. PostgreSQL: An open-source object-relational database management system that is known for its robustness and extensibility.

  3. MongoDB: A popular open-source NoSQL database that is known for its ability to handle large amounts of unstructured data.

  4. Oracle: A commercial relational database management system that is commonly used in enterprise-level applications.

  5. Microsoft SQL Server: A popular commercial relational database management system that is commonly used in Windows environments.

  • A single-user database supports one user at a time

    • A desktop database is single-user database on a personal computer

  • A multiuser database supports multiple users at the same time

    • A workgroup database supports a small number of users or a specific department

    • An enterprise database supports many users across many departments

 

Classification by location

  • A centralized database supports data located at a single site

  • A distributed database supports data distributed across different sites

  • A cloud database is created and maintained using cloud data services

Classification by Type

  • General-purpose databases contain a wide variety of data used in multiple disciplines

  • Discipline-specific databases contain data focused on specific subject areas

  • An operational database is designed to support a company’s day-to-day operations

  • An analytical database stores historical data and business metrics used exclusively for tactical or strategic decision-making and is comprised of two main components:

    • The data warehouse stores data in a format optimized for decision support

    • Online analytical processing (OLAP) is a set of tools for retrieving, processing, and modeling data from the data warehouse

  • Business intelligence describes a comprehensive approach to capture and process business data to generate information that supports decision making

    •Databases can be classified to reflect the degree to which the data is structured

  • Unstructured data exists in its original (raw) state

    • Structured data is the result of formatting unstructured data to facilitate storage and use

    • Semistructured data has already been processed to some extent

  • Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a language used to represent data elements in textual format

    • An XML database supports the storage and management of unstructured XML data

  • Social media refers to web and mobile technologies that enable “anywhere, anytime, always on” human interaction

  • Data is captured about end users and consumers that requires the use of specialized database systems

  • The term NoSQL (Not only SQL) is a new generation of DBMS that is not based on the traditional relational database model

    • These databases are designed to handle an unprecedented volume of data, variety of data types and structures, and velocity of data operations of new business requirements