Data Base Management System Architecture

Architecture of a DBMS should be based on the business needs of the organization. Choice of DBMS should not be made by a single individual or group, but by a team consisting of business experts and IT experts. Business experts should include representatives from various levels of the firm. The firm needs to ensure that the DBMS selected is appropriate for the nature of the buesiness and intended type of processing. There are essentially four levels of DBMS architecture that can be chosen: enterprise, departmental, personal, and mobile.

Enterprise DBMS are designed for scalability and high performance. They must be capable of supporting very large databases, a large number of concurrent users, and multiple types of applications. Enterprise DBMS run on a large-scale machine, typically a mainframe or a high-end Unix, Linux, or Windows NT machine. In addition, enterprise DBMS offer all of the bells and whistles available from the DBMS vendor. Multi-processor support, support for parallel queries, clustering, and other advanced DBMS features should be included. Examples include Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Oracle Database 11G.

Departmental DBMS support small to medium sized workgroups within an organization, and typically run on a Unix, Linux, or Windows 2000 (or NT) servers. Hardware and software upgrades often can allow a departmental DBMS to tackle tasks that previously could only be performed by an enterprise DBMS.

Personal DBMS are designed to be used by single users, usually on a low to medium-powered PC. Lotus Approach, Microsoft Access and dBase are examples of personal database software for personal use and small-scale information dissemination and retrieval.

Mobile DBMS (MDS) are specialized versions of a departmental or enterprise DBMS. They are designed to be used by remote users not connected to their networks. Mobile DBMS enable local database access and modification on a laptop or handheld device, such as a Blackberry, PDA or PocketPC. Mobile DBMS provide a mechanism for synchronizing remote database changes to a centralized, enterprise or DB server. MDS allow information dissemination via wireless channels.


Sources:
Mullins, Craig. "DBMS Architecture". DBMS Corner.
<http://www.craigsmullins.com/dbta_010.htm>.
Accessed April 3, 2009.

Hellerstein, Joseph. "Motivation and DBMS Architecture Overview". Readings in DB Systems.
<http://redbook.cs.berkeley.edu/redbook3/lec1.html>.
Accessed April 3, 2009.