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DBMS: Users, Characteristics, Applications, Advantages, and Disadvantages

In this tutorial, we will learn about the users, applications, advantages and disadvantages of database management system (DBMS). By Anushree Goswami Last updated : May 26, 2023

A database is a collection of related data. It is a collection of facts and figures which can further be used to produce different kinds of information.

The database management system (DBMS) is a group of programs that operate a database and serve as an interface between a database, its users and other application programs. DBMS is designed to define, create, manipulate, extract and manage data in a database. DBMS typically manipulates data; data format, field names, record, and file structure.

For example, Let's look at a simple example of an Employee database. This database supports information about Employee Name, Employee ID and other useful attributes required in Employee environment.

1. The EMPLOYEE NAME stores the data of Employees Name.
2. The EMPLOYEE ID file stores the unique identity of each employee.
3. The ADDRESS stores information about the address of the employee.
4. The SALARY stores information about the salary of the employee.

And many other details stored in the database required for the Employee.

Users in a DBMS Environment

There are three distinct types of users that participate in the DBMS environment: Programmers, Administrators, and End-users.

DBMS Users Roles

The following are the roles/tasks of the DBMS users:

Component Name	Tasks
Programmers	They are responsible to write programs. Programs that are written in various languages to interact with databases.
Administrators	They are responsible to manage the Database System. They are most commonly known as Database Admin.
End-Users	They are responsible to interact with the Database System. They perform adding, manipulating, deleting or retrieving data.

DBMS Characteristics

The following are the characteristics of database management system:

1. DBMS provides security and removes redundancy.
2. DBMS is self-describing nature of a database system.
3. DBMS is used as insulation between programs and data abstraction.
4. DBMS is used for multiuser transaction processing.
5. DBMS follows the ACID concept (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability).
6. DBMS supports a multi-user environment that allows users to access and manipulate data in parallel.

DBMS Applications

Database Management System is used in wide variety of sectors. Some of them are:

Sector	Use
Airlines	It is used to store for reservation and storage of the information.
Banking	It is used to store the customer information, payments, loans etc.
Finance	It is used to store the information of stocks, sales etc.
HR Management	It is used to store details about the employee, their salaries, details of paychecks etc.
Sales	It is used for storing customer, product information etc.
Telecommunication	It is used to keep the call records, monthly bills, etc.

DBMS Advantages

The following are the advantages of database management system:

1. It provides Data Independence. Application programs need to be independent of the details of data. DBMS provides the abstract view of the data.
2. It provides efficient data access. If a data is stored in external storage, a wide variety of sophisticated techniques are required to store and retrieve data efficiently.
3. It provides Data Integrity and Security. In order to maintain integrity, DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on the data.
4. It provides concurrent access and crashes recovery. Many users can access the database concurrently.
5. It provides data administration. When many users share the data, one central administration is required which can improve the performance.
6. It reduces application development time.

Disadvantage of DBMS

The following are the disadvantage of database management system:

1. It increases the danger of Overkill. It is not advisable to use the database for small and simple applications.
2. It increases the complexity of the database.
3. Qualified personnel is required to manage the database. A trained staff is required to operate the database system.
4. It increases cost. Database system when increases the complexity also increases the cost of management.
5. It decreases the efficiency. Since it is multi-user software thus it becomes less efficient as compared to the software that is made to solve only one problem.

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