Today, data is the lifeblood of an organization, and a database management system is the heart of modern analytical and operational business systems. Companies use database management systems to store, manage, secure, and serve the data to applications and users. Database management tools use a standard method and run queries, with some of them designed for the oversight and proper control of databases. This blog drills down some of the key types of database management systems and the key differences between each.
Types of Database Management Systems
Hierarchical Database
In a hierarchical database management system, the relationships among data in the database are established in such a way that one data item is present as the subordinate of another one or a subunit. This system is ideal for storing data with items describing attributes, features, and so on. One of the key advantages of relying on a hierarchical database is that it can be accessed and updated rapidly. This is so because here the model structure is like a tree and the relationships between records are defined in advance. On the flip side, a major drawback of this system is that adding a new field or record requires the entire database to be redefined.
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Network Database
A network database management system is primarily used on large digital computers. Here more connections can be made between different types of data. Network databases are similar to hierarchical databases as they also have a hierarchical structure. However, unlike a hierarchical database, in a network database, the relationships among data in the database are of type many-to-many. Hence, the structure of a network database is extremely complicated due to the presence of these many-to-many relationships in which one record can be used as a key to the entire database.
Relational Database
In most of the modern organizations today, network database models have been replaced by relational databases. Hierarchical and network databases require the user to pass a hierarchy in order to access the required data. These databases connect to the data in various files using a key field or common data numbers. Data in relational databases are stored in different access control tables, each having a key field that primarily identifies each row. Here the data is stored in fixed predefined structures and is usually manipulated using Structured Query Language (SQL).
Object-Oriented Database
This is one of the most advanced types of database management systems. While other database management systems are designed to handle structured data, object-oriented database management is designed to store data from a variety of media sources, such as text, photographs, and produce work, as output, in a multimedia format.
