Databases Types

Introduction

Have you heard something like types of databases? Do you know how many types of databases are? If not, then don’t worry. Board Infinity will help you to clear all these doubts.

In this article, we will be covering types of databases. We will look at different types of databases. We will also discuss all those databases and for what purpose they are used. So basically, an organized data collection called a database makes data storage, retrieval, and modification quick and easy. Let us understand the types of databases with their advantages and drawbacks.

Types of Databases

Distributed Database

A distributed database is one in which the data is kept in various places physically. It might be dispersed across a network of linked computers, or it might be stored on several computers housed in the same physical location.

Data collections can be dispersed across several different physical locations by system administrators. A distributed database may be housed on centralized network servers, decentralized independent computers, corporate intranets/extranets, or other locations. Let's understand its advantages.

Advantages of Distributed Database

• There is network transparency. This is the independence of the user from knowing how the network is run.
• There is transparency in fragmentation. It hides fragments, either horizontally or vertically, from users.
• When the data is spread across several sites, one site may fail while the other sites keep running.
• Expanding the system to add additional data, expand databases, etc., is simpler in a distributed setting.

Let us discuss the disadvantages of choosing a distributed database.

Disadvantages of Distributed Database

• Because fewer queries use the company's WAN and instead remain on a site's LAN, there is an increase in network traffic.
• Various systems utilize various data types.
• Systems become more complex due to the use of various DBMS products in different systems.
• System catalog management is challenging (every database stores all object-related data). The rows and columns of a table can likewise be used to hold this metadata. The system catalog contains a collection of this metadata.

Cloud Database

A private, public, or hybrid cloud environment is used to create, deploy, and access this database. Two deployment models are available:

Customary Database

Except for infrastructure provisioning, very comparable to an on-site, internally maintained database. In this instance, a company obtains virtual machine space from a provider of cloud services, and the database is set up in the cloud. Young organizations and small businesses can benefit from it.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

A fee-based subscription service, it's a database in which a company enters into a contract with a cloud services provider. The service provider offers the end-user a range of real-time administrative, database administration, maintenance, and operational duties.

Let us discuss what the advantages are choosing a cloud database.

Advantages of Cloud Database

• Testing, validating, and operationalizing new business ideas is simple and quick thanks to the speed with which cloud databases can be set up and decommissioned.
• The project can simply be abandoned, and the organization can move on to the next innovation if it decides not to operationalize it.
• Cloud databases provide numerous opportunities to lower risk throughout the business, particularly for DBaaS models.

Disadvantages of Cloud Database

• Moving your infrastructure to a different cloud service can be challenging once your company selects a provider.
• The cloud infrastructures offered by reputable vendors are generally very secure. But no system is completely impervious to attack. Data breaches are always a possibility when hosting private information online.

Commercial Database

An organization engaged in business creates and maintains a commercial database, which is typically made available to current and prospective clients. It contrasts with database management systems like MySql, Postgres, etc., in terms of free software and source accessibility. OracleDB and EnterpriseDB are a few examples. They are frequently connected to upscale services like responsive customer service, better uptime and access speed (cloud-deployed), etc. Let us understand what the advantages of going with a commercial database.

Advantages of Commercial Database

• Professional support is extended to customers by commercial DBMS software providers.
• Additional scaling capabilities and features might be offered by the organization.
• Data backups and automated cloud-based management are also options.
• The efficiency and uptime of the database could both be improved.

Disadvantages of Commercial Database

• Demand purchasing.
• Billing might grow along with the database.
• Payments made once are uncommon.
• A potential source of worry is DBMS migration.

Hierarchical Database

In this database model, the data is organized in a hierarchy that resembles a tree. Except for the child records at the last level, every record in the data tree should have at least one parent, and each parent should have at least one child record because the data tree is arranged in a hierarchy. It is possible to access the data through the classified structure, starting from the Root or the first parent.

Although not particularly flexible, the concept behind hierarchical database models is useful for a particular type of data storage. It is limited to a few very distinct uses. Let us discuss the advantages of a hierarchical database.

Advantages of Hierarchical Database

• The relationships between the layers are based on a hierarchical structure.
• Data security similar to that offered by DBMS was available in the first database model.
• Due to the high number of 1 relationships in the database and the high volume of transactions required by the user, it is very effective.
• Data stored at the top of the tree can be accessed very quickly.
• large base and reliable technology.

Disadvantages of Hierarchical Database

• Only one parent per child is allowed.
• Complex (users require the tangible or physical representation of database) (users require the physical representation of database)
• The data storage is organized like a tree, making navigation difficult.
• Without jeopardizing the integrity of the information, data must be arranged hierarchically.
• Independence of the structure
• The number of unsupported connections is just too high.
• Unbiased data.

Network Database

A network database is built on a network data model, which enables each record to have relationships with both primary and secondary records on a number of different levels. You are able to construct an adaptable model of entity relationships using network databases.

Relationships between various data entities are referred to as networks. A network database is based on a conventional hierarchical database, with the exception that it permits each object to have multiple parents as opposed to just one.

A schema, a list of data nodes and the connections between them, defines a graph that can be used to visualize network databases. This offers access to a data structure that, in a typical relational database, is only accessible through inference. Let us discuss its advantages.

Advantages of Network Database

• The network model is easy to design and has a clear conceptual foundation.
• The network model can handle one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, which is extremely useful when simulating real-world scenarios.
• Compared to the hierarchical model, data access is more convenient and adaptable.
• A member cannot exist independently of an owner under the network model.
• The network model isolates the programs from the intricate physical storage details better than the hierarchical model.

Disadvantages of Network Database

• Due to the use of pointers to maintain every record, the schema or structure of this database is extremely complicated.
• Due to the use of pointers for navigation, which further results in complex implementation, there are operational anomalies.
• No automated query optimization is possible with this model.
• Although the network database model can achieve data independence, this model fails to achieve structural independence.

Relational Database

A relational database management system stores and organizes related data points. A relational database presents data sets based on the model as a collection of tables and offers relational operators to manipulate the data in tabular form. Tables consist of rows with a set of data defined by each category and columns with one or more categories of data.

Each row in a table contains a different instance of data for the categories determined by the columns, and each table has a primary key that uniquely identifies the information in the table. Foreign keys, a field in a table that connects to the primary key information of another table, can then be used to establish the logical connection between various tables. Let us understand the advantages of RDBMS.

Advantages of Relational Database

• Although relational databases perform poorly, their speed is still much higher due to their ease of use and simplicity.
• Since a relational database contains many tables, it is possible to make some of them confidential.
• A relational database model is much more straightforward when compared to other kinds of network models.
• A relational database does not require a specific path for data access, in contrast to other databases.
• As a result, none of the data that is stored is repetitive.

Disadvantages of Relational Database

• As the amount of data grows, maintaining the relational database gets more challenging.
• The relational database system is expensive to install and keep up with.
• Because each operation relies on its own storage, a relational database, which consists of rows and columns, needs a lot of physical memory.
• When a relational database is used across multiple servers, its structure changes and it becomes challenging to manage.
• Complex relationships between objects cannot be represented using relational databases because they can only store data in tabular form.

NoSQL Database

In contrast to a relational database with rows and tables, NoSql has various methods for handling large amounts of unstructured data that are constantly changing. Consistency is sacrificed in favor of availability, speed, and partition tolerance by NoSQL DBMS. Data is stored in a database using the binary format of Javascript Object Notation (BSON) by NoSql DBMSs. The information is kept in documents, which are kept in collections.

True ACID transactions are absent from most NoSQL stores, although several databases, such as MarkLogic, Aerospike, and others, have made them a key component of their architecture. Let us discuss its advantages.

Advantages of NoSQL Database

• To guarantee zero downtime, NoSql databases fully utilize the cloud.
• They make schema and field modifications simple.
• Developers can easily use them.
• Data that is unstructured, semi-structured, or structured can be stored in them.
• With scale-out architecture, they can process large amounts of data quickly.

Disadvantages of NoSQL Database

• The policies and functions of NoSQL databases are not outlined in any standards. NoSQL databases come in various designs and query languages depending on the NoSQL product.
• A limitation of NoSQL databases is backups. Even though some NoSQL databases offer backup tools, these systems still need to be developed enough to guarantee a complete data backup solution.
• NoSQL prioritizes scalability and performance, but the consistency of the data isn't given much thought.

Object-Oriented Database

The database combines the concepts of relational databases with those of object-oriented programming. Consider an object as a model and a class as different constructs or instances of it. These instances share the characteristics that the class gives them. For instance, a " bear " category might contain objects like brown bears, polar bears, black bears, etc. The fundamental building block of a class, an object, is an instance of a type that is either predefined or user-defined.

Classes give objects a behavioral blueprint or schema by providing a schema. A class's behavior is determined by its methods. Pointers facilitate object database access and help link objects together. Let us discuss the advantages of OODBMS.

Advantages of Object-Oriented Database

• Building new data types from existing types is possible with OODBMS.
• The OODBMS can store a variety of data types.
• It is possible to get around the impedance mismatch by using a single language interface between the programming language and the data manipulation language.
• In an OODBMS, navigational access from the object is the most popular type of data access. For handling parts explosion, recursive queries, and other situations, it is better suited.
• Schema evolution is more practical in an OODBMS due to the close coupling between data and applications.

Disadvantages of Object-Oriented Database

• OODBMS is not commonly used.
• Standards for OODBMS are generally lacking. Both an object-oriented query language and a data model that is universally accepted are lacking.
• The RDBMS and new ORDBMS products' competition is arguably one of the biggest problems OODBMS vendors must deal with.
• To efficiently access the database, query optimization requires knowledge of the implementation's foundation. But this undermines the idea of incrustation.
• Numerous OODBMSs base their concurrency control protocol on locking, which could have an effect on performance.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed the types of databases. We also have discussed their advantages and disadvantages. So basically, A database is a set of organized data that makes data access, storage, and alteration quick and easy.