Overhead cost
High initial investment in hardware, software, and training
The generality that a DBMS provides for defining and processing data
Overhead for providing security, concurrency control, recovery, and integrity functions
Therefore, a regular file is more desirable under the following circumstances
Simple, well-defined database application that are not expected to change at all
Stringent, real-time requirements for some application programs that may not be met because of DBMS overhead
Embedded systems with limited storage capacity, where a general-purpose DBMS would not fit
No multiple-user access to data