How can a remote DBA expert help you with database implementation for your business?

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Storing is a job which has to be done very carefully. Especially when it is related to data of a company, proper care has to be taken. There was a time when people used to store only manual documents as their records, and normally all transactions were happening in one place only, and it could be viewed only in that place. Even if someone wants the related documents, it used to take a lot of time in sending them those details. Even though some records were maintained by writing it in some books manually, documents were important.

No matter how many years, they used to store it. The tradition of storing is followed till today. Only the pattern has changed. From the time digitalization has concurred the people's mind, there has been a lot of improvement in the field of storage. Nowadays people believe in storing all records digitally in a database. Anyone with proper authorization can view the records on this internet platform. Hence, a database can be referred to as a place of recording all transactions. It depends on the designing of database what exactly can be stored in it. So whenever any company is planning to record all its transactions digitally, it has to get the database designed by a good designer. Not only viewing, but authorized people can also edit or delete the entries in a database.

Types of databases

Even though the database is useful, access depends on the type of database. Following are some of the types of databases.

• End-user database: The end user mainly utilizes this kind of database. The end user is that person who takes the ultimate benefit of the software or product. Not only one user, if the authority is given then, but a set of users can also make use of the information. Normally all employees are given access to this database, but it depends on their work profile how much access they get.
• Centralized database: This is a database which is controlled by the headquarters of a company. However, people from a distinct location can access the information only if they are provided with the authorization. Visit RemoteDBA.com to enjoy the benefit of accessing the centralized database.
• Operational database: This type of database is maintained to record all operational transactions such as sales, purchases, etc. which are more used by the marketing, and production team. So only those personnel are given the access to such information.
• Personal database: This is a database which contains all personal data and is meant to be viewed only by limited users.

Managing a database is a technique. Database management system can be referred to as a system of managing a group of software applications or programs. It is mainly used to create, organize, retrieve, analyze and index the computer databases. There are many database management systems like databases which are navigational such as hierarchical database model and network model; relational model; object-oriented etc.

Let us concentrate on the relational database management system. RDBMS, in short, is a type of database management system which consists of data stored in rows and columns. In other words, it is a row-based structure which relates data elements and includes maintain related to accuracy, integrity, consistency, and security of data.

RDBMS functions can be summarized as CRUD which means create, read, update and delete the transactions.

Accessing the data in RDBMS is easy, and it can be done through SQL. The language SQL is so user-friendly that many functional departments like bank and travel agencies choose to work in RDBMS environment

Some of the database software developed is IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL, Oracle RDBMS and ADABAS. Oracle database is a relational database management system (RDBMS) which was innovated by the Oracle Corporation. Lawrence Ellison originally developed it in 1977, and even other developers have a contribution to the achievement. It is known to be the most trusted and used widely.

How big can a database be?

Till now we have understood the importance of a database and its management. But has anyone ever given a thought towards the size of a database? Well, it depends on the user and the type of company which is the using the database. Well if the type of database is an end user, then it is sure to be bulky always because it contains lots and lots of information. So, the database has to be very big.

So, to design a database, the designer has first to do some calculations. The designer has to first decision regarding the space required for data storage in a table. The word "table" is used because, in RDBMS, the data is stored in rows and columns which form a table.

First, decide the number of rows and columns that your database requires. Your column may be of fixed length or variable length. If you are considering fixed length columns, then whatever may be the text or data length, the database will accept only the data which matches the text length in the database. Whereas in variable length, the database will accept any number of characters of any data type. So it depends on the data validation for columns and rows. Even the data type also has to be considered while calculating the space required in a table. The data types available are general; text; number (integers; with or without decimals); date (short and long) and memo field, etc.

Once you decide the data you want the database to store, the columns will be fixed. Now as and when the data is fed into the RDBMS, the number of rows will increase. As a designer you have every option of restructuring the database, i.e., add, modify or delete the fields as per the requirement. So whenever you are planning to restructure the database, always take a backup of the data.

Author Bio: Norlin Christopher is the author of this article, and he has several years of experience in using DBA for business development. He has also brought RemoteDBA.com in the limelight.