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A computerised filing system forming the core of most
corporate computer system. Databases are, on the face of it, simple tools
used to store and retrieve information. In reality, they are big and complex
programs that are subjected to extreme pressure as the demand for
sophisticated analysis of corporate data grows Until fairly recently,
databases handled only numbers and text, but the acceptance of multimedia
technologies has added a requirement for storage of more complex forms of
data such as video and graphics.
Databases are commonly used as the
engines driving websites. Retail sites, for example, use databases to
store the details of their customers ( not a trivial task
in the case of companies case of companies such as amazon, which have
tens of million of them) and the items they have for sale, and many sites
now use database technology to manage the display of editorial content.
Many website databases also contain demographic information about
subscribers, and online retailers and banks use them to store
credit-card and other financial information. Unsurprisingly, the presence of
such repositories of potentially valuable data has attracted the attention
of crackers, and database security has become a major concern for
anyone storing information on computers attached to the public internet. The
importance of databases technology to the internet world is reflected in the
massive growth of companies like Oracle. |
