CHAPTER 1

Databases and Database Users

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 1

OUTLINE
 Types of Databases and Database Applications
 Basic Definitions
 Typical DBMS Functionality
 Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
 Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
 Types of Database Users
 Advantages of Using the Database Approach
 Historical Development of Database Technology
 Extending Database Capabilities
 When Not to Use Databases
Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 2
Types of Databases and Database
Applications
 Traditional Applications:
 Numeric and Textual Databases
 More Recent Applications:
 Multimedia Databases
 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
 Biological and Genome Databases
 Data Warehouses
 Mobile databases
 Real-time and Active Databases

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 3

Recent Developments (1)
 Social Networks started capturing a lot of
information about people and about
communications among people-posts, tweets,
photos, videos in systems such as:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Linked-In
 All of the above constitutes data

 Search Engines- Google, Bing, Yahoo : collect

their own repository of web pages for searching

purposes Slide 1- 4
Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Recent Developments (2)
 New Technologies are emerging from the so-
called non-database software vendors to manage
vast amounts of data generated on the web:

 Big Data storage systems involving large clusters

of distributed computers
 NOSQL (Not Only SQL) systems
 A large amount of data now resides on the
“cloud” which means it is in huge data centers
using thousands of machines.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 5

Basic Definitions
 Database:
 A collection of related data.

 Data:
 Known facts that can be recorded and have an implicit meaning.

 Mini-world:
 Some part of the real world about which data is stored in a

database. For example, student grades and transcripts at a

university.
 Database Management System (DBMS):
 A software package/ system to facilitate the creation and

maintenance of a computerized database.

 Database System:
 The DBMS software together with the data itself. Sometimes, the

applications are also included.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 6

Impact of Databases and Database
Technology
 Businesses: Banking, Insurance, Retail,
Transportation, Healthcare, Manufacturing
 Service Industries: Financial, Real-estate, Legal,
Electronic Commerce, Small businesses
 Education : Resources for content and Delivery
 More recently: Social Networks, Environmental
and Scientific Applications, Medicine and
Genetics
 Personalized Applications: based on smart mobile
devices
Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 7
Simplified database system environment

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Typical DBMS Functionality
 Define a particular database in terms of its data types,
structures, and constraints
 Construct or Load the initial database contents on a
secondary storage medium
 Manipulating the database:
 Retrieval: Querying, generating reports
 Modification: Insertions, deletions and updates to its content
 Accessing the database through Web applications
 Processing and Sharing by a set of concurrent users and
application programs – yet, keeping all data valid and
consistent

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 9

Application Activities Against a
Database
 Applications interact with a database by
generating
- Queries: that access different parts of data and
formulate the result of a request
- Transactions: that may read some data and
“update” certain values or generate new data and
store that in the database
 Applications must not allow unauthorized users to

access data
 Applications must keep up with changing user

requirements against the database

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 10
Additional DBMS Functionality
 DBMS may additionally provide:
 Protection or Security measures to prevent
unauthorized access
 “Active” processing to take internal actions on data
 Presentation and Visualization of data
 Maintenance of the database and associated
programs over the lifetime of the database
application

Called database, software, and system
maintenance

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 11

Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
 Mini-world for the example:
 Part of a UNIVERSITY environment.
 Some mini-world entities:
 STUDENTs
 COURSEs
 SECTIONs (of COURSEs)
 (academic) DEPARTMENTs
 INSTRUCTORs

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 12

Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
 Some mini-world relationships:
 SECTIONs are of specific COURSEs
 STUDENTs take SECTIONs
 COURSEs have prerequisite COURSEs
 INSTRUCTORs teach SECTIONs
 COURSEs are offered by DEPARTMENTs
 STUDENTs major in DEPARTMENTs

 Note: The above entities and relationships are typically

expressed in a conceptual data model, such as the
ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP data model (see Chapters 3, 4)

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 13

Example of a simple database

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach
 Self-describing nature of a database system:
 A DBMS catalog stores the description of a particular
database (e.g. data structures, types, and constraints)
 The description is called meta-data*.
 This allows the DBMS software to work with different
database applications.
 Insulation between programs and data:
 Called program-data independence.
 Allows changing data structures and storage organization

without having to change the DBMS access programs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Some newer systems such as a few NOSQL systems need
no meta-data: they store the data definition within its structure
making it self describing
Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 15
Example of a simplified database catalog

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
 Data Abstraction:
 A data model is used to hide storage details and
present the users with a conceptual view of the
database.
 Programs refer to the data model constructs rather
than data storage details
 Support of multiple views of the data:
 Each user may see a different view of the
database, which describes only the data of
interest to that user.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 17

Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
 Sharing of data and multi-user transaction
processing:
 Allowing a set of concurrent users to retrieve from and to
update the database.
 Concurrency control within the DBMS guarantees that each
transaction is correctly executed or aborted
 Recovery subsystem ensures each completed transaction
has its effect permanently recorded in the database
 OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) is a major part of
database applications. This allows hundreds of concurrent
transactions to execute per second.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 18

Database Users
 Users may be divided into
 Those who actually use and control the database
content, and those who design, develop and
maintain database applications (called “Actors on
the Scene”), and
 Those who design and develop the DBMS
software and related tools, and the computer
systems operators (called “Workers Behind the
Scene”).

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 19

Database Users – Actors on the
Scene
 Actors on the scene
 Database administrators:

Responsible for authorizing access to the database,
for coordinating and monitoring its use, acquiring
software and hardware resources, controlling its use
and monitoring efficiency of operations.
 Database Designers:

Responsible to define the content, the structure, the
constraints, and functions or transactions against
the database. They must communicate with the
end-users and understand their needs.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 20

Database End Users
 Actors on the scene (continued)
 End-users: They use the data for queries, reports
and some of them update the database content.
End-users can be categorized into:

Casual: access database occasionally when
needed

Naïve or Parametric: they make up a large section
of the end-user population.
 They use previously well-defined functions in the form of
“canned transactions” against the database.
 Users of Mobile Apps mostly fall in this category

 Bank-tellers or reservation clerks are parametric users

who do this activity for an entire shift of operations.

 Social Media Users post and read information from

websites
Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 21
Database End Users (continued)

Sophisticated:
 These include business analysts, scientists, engineers,
others thoroughly familiar with the system capabilities.
 Many use tools in the form of software packages that work
closely with the stored database.

Stand-alone:
 Mostly maintain personal databases using ready-to-use
packaged applications.
 An example is the user of a tax program that creates its
own internal database.
 Another example is a user that maintains a database of
personal photos and videos.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 22

Database Users – Actors on the
Scene (continued)

System Analysts and Application Developers
This category currently accounts for a very large proportion
of the IT work force.
 System Analysts: They understand the user
requirements of naïve and sophisticated users and design
applications including canned transactions to meet those
requirements.
 Application Programmers: Implement the
specifications developed by analysts and test and debug
them before deployment.
 Business Analysts: There is an increasing need for
such people who can analyze vast amounts of business
data and real-time data (“Big Data”) for better decision
making related to planning, advertising, marketing etc.
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Database Users – Actors behind the
Scene

System Designers and Implementors: Design and
implement DBMS packages in the form of modules and
interfaces and test and debug them. The DBMS must interface
with applications, language compilers, operating system
components, etc.

Tool Developers: Design and implement software
systems called tools for modeling and designing databases,
performance monitoring, prototyping, test data generation,
user interface creation, simulation etc. that facilitate building of
applications and allow using database effectively .

Operators and Maintenance Personnel: They
manage the actual running and maintenance of the database
system hardware and software environment.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 24

Advantages of Using the Database
Approach
 Controlling redundancy in data storage and in
development and maintenance efforts.
 Sharing of data among multiple users.
 Restricting unauthorized access to data. Only the
DBA staff uses privileged commands and
facilities.
 Providing persistent storage for program Objects
 E.g., Object-oriented DBMSs make program
objects persistent
 Providing Storage Structures (e.g. indexes) for
efficient Query Processing
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Advantages of Using the Database
Approach (continued)
 Providing optimization of queries for efficient
processing.
 Providing backup and recovery services.
 Providing multiple interfaces to different classes
of users.
 Representing complex relationships among data.
 Enforcing integrity constraints on the database.
 Drawing inferences and actions from the stored
data using deductive and active rules and
triggers.
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Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach
 Potential for enforcing standards:
 This is very crucial for the success of database
applications in large organizations. Standards
refer to data item names, display formats, screens,
report structures, meta-data (description of data),
Web page layouts, etc.
 Reduced application development time:
 Incremental time to add each new application is
reduced.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 27

Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach (continued)
 Flexibility to change data structures:
 Database structure may evolve as new
requirements are defined.
 Availability of current information:
 Extremely important for on-line transaction
systems such as shopping, airline, hotel, car
reservations.
 Economies of scale:
 Wasteful overlap of resources and personnel can
be avoided by consolidating data and applications
across departments.
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Historical Development of Database
Technology
 Early Database Applications:
 The Hierarchical and Network Models were introduced in
mid 1960s and dominated during the seventies.
 A bulk of the worldwide database processing still occurs
using these models, particularly, the hierarchical model
using IBM’s IMS system.
 Relational Model based Systems:
 Relational model was originally introduced in 1970, was
heavily researched and experimented within IBM Research
and several universities.
 Relational DBMS Products emerged in the early 1980s.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 29

Historical Development of Database
Technology (continued)
 Object-oriented and emerging applications:
 Object-Oriented Database Management Systems
(OODBMSs) were introduced in late 1980s and early 1990s
to cater to the need of complex data processing in CAD and
other applications.

Their use has not taken off much.
 Many relational DBMSs have incorporated object database
concepts, leading to a new category called object-relational
DBMSs (ORDBMSs)
 Extended relational systems add further capabilities (e.g. for
multimedia data, text, XML, and other data types)

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 30

Historical Development of Database
Technology (continued)
 Data on the Web and E-commerce Applications:
 Web contains data in HTML (Hypertext markup
language) with links among pages.
 This has given rise to a new set of applications
and E-commerce is using new standards like XML
(eXtended Markup Language).
 Script programming languages such as PHP and
JavaScript allow generation of dynamic Web
pages that are partially generated from a database

Also allow database updates through Web pages

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 31

Extending Database Capabilities (1)
 New functionality is being added to DBMSs in the following areas:
 Scientific Applications – Physics, Chemistry, Biology - Genetics

 Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Astronomy

 XML (eXtensible Markup Language)

 Image Storage and Management

 Audio and Video Data Management

 Data Warehousing and Data Mining – a very major area for future

development using new technologies

 Spatial Data Management and Location Based Services

 Time Series and Historical Data Management

 The above gives rise to new research and development in

incorporating new data types, complex data structures, new
operations and storage and indexing schemes in database systems.

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Extending Database Capabilities (2)
 Background since the advent of the 21st Century:

 First decade of the 21st century has seen tremendous

growth in user generated data and automatically
collected data from applications and search engines.

 Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter

are generating millions of transactions a day and
businesses are interested to tap into this data to
“understand” the users

 Cloud Storage and Backup is making unlimited amount

of storage available to users and applications

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 33

Extending Database Capabilities (3)
 Emergence of Big Data Technologies and NOSQL databases
 New data storage, management and analysis technology was

necessary to deal with the onslaught of data in petabytes a day

(10**15 bytes or 1000 terabytes) in some applications – this
started being commonly called as “Big Data”.
 Hadoop (which originated from Yahoo) and Mapreduce

Programming approach to distributed data processing (which

originated from Google) as well as the Google file system have
given rise to Big Data technologies. Further enhancements are
taking place in the form of Spark based technology.
 NOSQL (Not Only SQL- where SQL is the de facto standard

language for relational DBMSs) systems have been designed for

rapid search and retrieval from documents, processing of huge
graphs occurring on social networks, and other forms of
unstructured data with flexible models of transaction processing.

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 34

When not to use a DBMS
 Main inhibitors (costs) of using a DBMS:
 High initial investment and possible need for additional
hardware.
 Overhead for providing generality, security, concurrency
control, recovery, and integrity functions.
 When a DBMS may be unnecessary:
 If the database and applications are simple, well defined,
and not expected to change.
 If access to data by multiple users is not required.
 When a DBMS may be infeasible:
 In embedded systems where a general purpose DBMS may
not fit in available storage

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 35

When not to use a DBMS
 When no DBMS may suffice:
 If there are stringent real-time requirements

that may not be met because of DBMS

overhead (e.g., telephone switching systems)
 If the database system is not able to handle the
complexity of data because of modeling limitations
(e.g., in complex genome and protein databases)
 If the database users need special operations not
supported by the DBMS (e.g., GIS and location
based services).

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 36

Chapter Summary
 Types of Databases and Database Applications
 Basic Definitions
 Typical DBMS Functionality
 Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
 Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
 Types of Database Users
 Advantages of Using the Database Approach
 Historical Development of Database Technology
 Extending Database Capabilities
 When Not to Use Databases
Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 1- 37