Buy essay on Factors to consider when choosing a database management system

Selection of a database management system (DBMS) is a complex multiparameter issue and is one of the important stages in the development of database applications. Selected product should meet both current and future needs of the enterprise, and should take into account the financial expenditures for acquiring the necessary equipment, the system itself, development of the necessary software on its base, as well as staff trainings. In addition, the management of the company should make sure that the new database management system can bring real benefits to the enterprise.
Obviously, the simplest approach for selecting a DBMS is based on an assessment of the extent to which existing systems meet the basic requirements of the created project of an information system. More complex and costly option is to create a test project based on several databases and subsequent selection of the most suitable candidate. But, in this case it is necessary to limit the range of possible systems, based on certain selection criteria. In this paper, the attempts are made to formulate the requirements or, in other words, the criteria or factors important for selecting a DBMS, and to present the classification of these factors.
The results of the analysis are based on the research of five sources. The works of Connolly and Begg (2009), Rob and Coronel (2007), as well as the work of Pratt and Adamski (2007) contributed to my understanding of database design methodology, through describing physical, logical, and conceptual database design. In addition, Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management (Rob & Coronel, 2007) provides demonstrates that the main factor of effective implementation of DBMS is in the appropriate design of databases which are fitting the strategic prospects of company’s data environment, including coverage of Unified Modeling Language, functions of SQL Server, coverage of data security and business intelligence. The book also contains contemporary examples and thus, develops database design skills and understanding, which are significant for application in the real practice. Concepts of Database Management (Pratt & Adamski, 2007) becomes an essential resource for developing the knowledge on database management concepts, also addressing the most current issues like database updates, data security and integrity, database management and administration peculiar for specific professional application fields, etc.
Grineva and Grinev (2007) were effective in creating approach to understanding efficient implementation of DBMSs and describing contemporary processes used in powerful trigger mechanisms. The article runs (Grineva & Grinev, 2007) that XML DBMS being comparatively new are lacking functionality, while the majority of industrial relational DBMS are already supporting triggers. The work also discusses examples of applications, where XML query triggers occur to be useful and gives review of existing research works in this area, stimulating appearance of new research works aimed at extending the functionality of XML DBMS by trigger support. S. Jajodia et al. (Jajodia, 2001) expands the understanding of the security factors importance. The research provides an overview of transaction processing needs and solutions in conventional DBMSs as background, explains the constraints introduced by multilevel security, and then describes the results of research in multilevel secure transaction processing.
First of all, it should be mentioned that the characteristics of database systems from different producers can be generally divided into relational client-server products, object-oriented client-server products and integrated libraries which do not require server-side processing. Each category has its advantages and disadvantages and is more or less popular among companies for different reasons. All of these products, except for integrated libraries, support transaction processing and parallel access.
The developers of client-server relational systems such companies as Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase and Informix offer quite expensive enterprise-level database systems and the database cores of these products to the developers of management systems. Client-server relational products are very popular, because many programmers are already acquainted with the query language SQL (Structured Query Language) and the structure of relational databases. The main disadvantage of client-server systems should be considered as an increase in processing time associated with the need for certain costs related to communications between the client and server, as well as the additional complexity of installing, running and maintaining an independent server process for integrated systems (Connolly & Begg, 2009).
Another category of producers enrich the market of DBMS with their experience in the development of object-oriented databases. Products of these companies seem well fitting for usage in the integrated management systems, but they are considered in this role extremely rare. The reason for this is that the most popular object-oriented databases are designed for Unix-based systems, so they are deeply “permeated” with the relevant features of the systems’ memory management and behavioral processes in communication with each other. Transfer of these products from one architecture platform to another is connected with great difficulties. However, they are expected to demonstrate their abilities in the environment of Linux operational system or any other types of Unix, such as FreeBSD, with which a number of classes of integrated devices are equipped (Connolly & Begg, 2009).
Object-oriented databases are popular because of their deep integration into the programming languages C++ and Java, and also because the complexity of the scheme of such a database is sometimes deeply hidden from the software specialist. Their main disadvantage for the DBMS market is over-loading, which is created by the communication between the client and server, and also the insufficient number of integrated systems supporting their platform.
In their turn, the manufacturers of integrated libraries are developing their products exclusively for integrated management systems. All these systems are working directly in the address space of applications that use them. They provide a simple application interface on the level of programming languages, which does not require the usage of the mechanism of SQL-queries for manipulating the data. The main advantages of built-in libraries consists in the fact that they provide faster execution (as the operations with the base do not involve communication with an independent server) and increased reliability due to reduction in the number of components working in the system. However, libraries have a very serious disadvantage lying in the fact that the support of non-standard software interfaces requires direct intervention of the developer (Connolly & Begg, 2009).