Database management refers to the actions taken by a business to manipulate and control data to meet necessary conditions throughout the entire data lifecycle. It involves designing, implementing, and supporting stored data to maximize its value. A database management system (DBMS) is a software tool that helps organize, store, and retrieve data from a database. The main elements of a DBMS include a physical database that contains the data, a database engine that helps to access the data and modify its contents, and a database scheme which provides the logical structure of the data stored in the database.
Tasks that make up database management include performance monitoring and tuning, storage and capacity planning, backup and recovery, data archiving, data partitioning, replication, masking, and retirement. Different types of DBMS include centralized, distributed, relational, hierarchical, and network.
Database management has become more important as the volume of business data has grown. Rapid data growth creates a wide variety of negative conditions, including poor application performance and compliance risk, to name a few. As most application performance issues originate in the database, knowing how to monitor and optimize your database is essential to your operations.
