More on Database (Part-1)

As said a database is a collection of organized data or information stored electronically and can be controlled by Database Management System. As said there are different types of users for a database : Users and Administrators.

Who are Database Users ?

Database users are those who make use of the data stored in the database. They can also be said as those who actually make use of the database. They can classified on the basis of their needs and the way in which they access data.

• Application programmers : They are the developers who actually create or can be said as to interact with the database using DML queries. These queries are written in programs like C, C++,Java, etc.

• Sophisticated Users : They are database designers. That is, they are developers who write SQL Queries to insert, create, delete data. They directly interact with the database using the query languages. In short we can say that these users are developers and designers of the database.

• Specialized Users : These are a type of sophisticated users, who develop special application programs on database.

• Standalone Users : They are users which use the database for their personal use. They also use ready-made database packages.
• Native Users : They are those who use the existing application to interact with the database.

Who are Database Administrators ?

The lifecycle of a database starts from designing, implementing to administration of it. The database grows as the data stored increases. As the database grows it should be organized and it should be maintained. If such huge databases are not maintained properly then the performance will comes down. There will be unused memory in database making memory inevitably huge. So this creates a problem for the database users. That's were Database Administrators comes in.

The Database Administrators (DBA) take care of these functions. A good-performing database is in the hands of the Database Administrator. The DBA is responsible for upgrading these servers as there are new versions in market and they are responsible for all services of the DBMS. The DBA also provide performance tuning to the database. The administrator should make sure all the queries and program work correctly. Also the DBA is responsible to provide security for the database as well as for backing up of data. There are various types of administrators on the basis of the responsibility he/she owns :

• Administrative DBA : They are mainly concerned with installing and maintaining DBMS servers. They are responsible for keeping backup, installing, recovery, security, replications, memory management, configurations, and tuning.
• Development DBA : They are responsibility is to creating queries and procedures as per the requirement.
• Database Architect : They are responsible for creating and maintaining the users, roles, indexes, views, constraints, keys . His/her main responsibility us to design the database as per the requirement of the user.
• Application DBA : They act like a bridge between applications program and the database. He/she ensures all the activities from installing, upgrading, and patching, maintaining, backup, recovery to executing the records work without any issues.