Offering engineers and non-specialists alike a comprehensive introduction to a key topic in modern business, this easy-to-read guide embraces a wider view perspective encompassing big data, NoSQL, object and object-relational, and in-memory variants.

Modern businesses depend on data for their very survival, creating a need for sophisticated databases and database technologies to help store, organise and transport their valuable data.

This easy-to-read textbook/reference presents a comprehensive introduction to databases, opening with a concise history of databases and of data as an organisational asset. As relational database management systems are no longer the only database solution, the book takes a wider view of database technology, encompassing big data, NoSQL, object and object-relational, and in-memory databases. The text also examines the issues of scalability, availability, performance and security encountered when building and running a database in the real world.

Topics and features: presents review and discussion questions at the end of each chapter, in addition to skill-building, hands-on exercises; introduces the fundamental concepts and technologies in database systems, placing these in an historic context; describes the challenges faced by database professionals; reviews the use of a variety of database types in business environments; discusses areas for further research within this fast-moving domain; suggests a structure for a potential university course in the preface.

With its learning-by-doing approach, supported by both theoretical and practical examples, this clearly-structured textbook will be of great value to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of computer science, software engineering, and information technology. Practising database professionals and application developers will also find the book an ideal reference that addresses today's business needs.

Includes numerous examples to support the description of both business and technical issues

Introduces a range of commercial databases and encourages the reader to experiment with these in an associated learning environment

Presents a mixture of both theory and practical elements

Autorentext

Peter Lake is Course Leader for the Oracle IT&M MSc and the IT Professional MSc at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. His other Springer publications include the successful Guide to Cloud Computing.

Paul Crowther is Head of Postgraduate (taught programmes) in the Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Inhalt
Part I: Databases in Context.- Data: An Organisational Asset.- The History of Databases.- Physical Storage and Distribution.- Part II: Database Types.- Relational: The Start of the Modern Era in Databases.- NoSQL: Column-Based and Document-Based Databases.- Big Data.- Object and Object-Relational.- In-Memory Databases.- Part III: What Database Professionals Worry About.- Scalability.- Availability.- Performance.- Security.