Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 35
Database Administration
• DBA:
– Works with users to decide the content of the
database
– Works with programmers as they build applications
to ensure that their programs comply with database
management system standards and conventions
• Data administrator:
– Responsible for defining and implementing
consistent principles for a variety of data issues
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 36
Popular Database Management
Systems
• Popular DBMSs for end users:
– Microsoft’s Access and FileMaker Pro
• Database as a Service (DaaS):
– Emerging database system
– Database administration is provided by the service
provider
– The database is stored on a service provider’s
servers and accessed by the client over a network
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 37
Special-Purpose Database Systems
• Some specialized database packages are used for
specific purposes or in specific industries
– Rex-Book from Urbanspoon
• Morphbank (www.morphbank.net):
– Allows researchers to continually update and expand
a library of over 96,000 biological images
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 38
Selecting a Database Management
System
• Important characteristics of databases to consider:
– Database size
– Database cost
– Concurrent users
– Performance
– Integration
– Vendor
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 39
Using Databases with Other Software
• DBMSs can act as front-end or back-end
applications:
– Front-end applications interact directly with people
– Back-end applications interact with other programs
or applications
Database Applications
• Today’s database applications manipulate the
content of a database to produce useful information
• Common manipulations:
– Searching, filtering, synthesizing, and assimilating
data contained in a database using a number of
database applications
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 40
Linking Databases to the Internet
• Semantic Web:
– Developing a seamless integration of traditional
databases with the Internet
– Provides metadata with all Web content using
technology called the Resource Description
Framework (RDF)
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 41
Fundamentals of Information Systems, Sixth Edition 42
Data Warehouses, Data Marts, and
Data Mining
• Data warehouse:
– Database that holds business information from many
sources in the enterprise
• Data mart:
– Subset of a data warehouse
• Data mining:
– Information-analysis tool that involves the automated
discovery of patterns and relationships in a data
warehouse
Data Warehouses, Data Marts, and
Data Mining (continued)
• Predictive analysis: