Evolution of Databases

Database in simple terms is a collection of related information.Prior to the invention of computing systems ,organizational data or information was stored in manual files. These manual or paper files had data in an organized sequence. Each file consisted of related information with or without being indexed.

Disadvantage of Storing data in paper or manual files :
1) These paper files needed huge storage area.
2) paper files are indexed on particular characteristic, where as in case of software we could index it on many permutations and combinations.
3) Since these are manual files same information might need to be reflected in many files. Any modifications to these require editing of all the files manually ,which is a huge task. In case of Software you could write the rules once and that will be reflected automatically everywhere.
4) Searching for related information also requires manual searching in all the paper files.

Database Management Systems.
Database Management System is a piece of software to maintain data in an organized manner and with user friendly interface. The user interface could be software subprograms or functions or else it could be a GUI interface.

Prior to the advent of DBMS software high level languages like C were used for developing database management software. languages like c were designed for scientific purpose but not for Database management. In order to design a software using c for Database management system it takes millons of lines of code. Cobol was designed for Database specific applications.

Types of Databases

1) DBMS (Database Management Systems)
2) RDBMS(Relational Database Management Systems)
3) ORDBMS (Object Relational Database Management Systems)