How are databases used in organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

How are databases used in organisations - Essay Example Another type of databases is distributed databases. These are databases which are scattered and stored over different systems on a network. Object-oriented databases use the concept of classes and subclasses to store and organize data. Databases usually do not exist in isolation but are part of database systems. A database system, besides the collection of records, provides a number of features such as searching for records, accessing them and updating them. Typically databases use the language SQL (Structured Query Language) to access the data and make changes to it. Popular database systems include Oracle, IBM’s DB2 and Microsoft Access. Databases play a vital and indispensible role in organizations today and are of great importance. One of the reasons for this is that they have replaced the old paper files and records. This makes the information become compact and is no longer scattered in paper files. Not only do paper files taka a lot of space, they are also vulnerable of being destroyed by fire etc. Besides saving in the space, the database provides an easier access to data. It allows the users to retrieve data in very little time and to update it easily. Data from a database can be retrieved and sorted in a number of ways depending on the requirements. Databases can provide the same information to a number of users at the same time. A large number of users can access the information and update it simultaneously. This is not possible with manual systems (SQLServer.com). Databases usually contain collection of data records of files related to a common subject or entity. Typically databases are part of information systems. These systems are used for a number of purposes. In a business organization, databases are used for storing information on finance, sales, customer records etc. Similarly, databases are immensely used in banking, healthcare and education industries. In this paper, we shall focus on the use of databases in