Database management is a system for managing the data that supports a company’s business operations. It involves storing and distributing data it to users and applications making edits as needed and monitoring changes to data and preventing data corruption due to unexpected failure. It is part of the informational infrastructure of a company that supports decision making lgsdemo.gajeratrust.org and corporate growth as well as compliance with laws like the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

In the 1960s, Charles Bachman and IBM among others developed the first database systems. They evolved into information management systems (IMS) which made it possible to store and retrieve massive amounts of data for a variety of purposes, ranging from calculating inventory to supporting complicated financial accounting and human resources functions.

A database is tables that store data in accordance with a specific pattern, for example, one-to-many relationships. It uses primary keys to identify records, and allow cross-references between tables. Each table contains a number of fields, known as attributes, that represent facts about the data entities. The most widely used kind of database is a relational model, developed by E. F. “Ted” Codd at IBM in the 1970s. This model is based on normalizing data to make it simpler to use. It is also simpler to update data because it doesn’t require the modification of certain sections of the database.

The majority of DBMSs support a variety of databases, offering internal and external levels of organization. The internal level concerns costs, scalability and other operational issues, such as the physical layout of the database. The external level is the way the database is displayed in user interfaces and other applications. It could comprise a combination of different external views (based on different data models) and could also include virtual tables which are generated using generic data to improve performance.