Question one: Briefly describe the origin of database systems and its evolution.

(10 sentences maximum)

Answer: Firstly, database systems came into being in the 1960s when the first computers were introduced and their file systems replaced manually processed files in the operational activities of businesses. Secondly, in the 1970s onward, the demand for information and the explosive growth in information technology brought about the evolution of database systems. This was due to the fact that, on one hand; the information required by organizations became much more, with new uses, different types, integrated, shared and faster rather than what it used to be in the earlier days of computing. On the other hand, information technology had increased from the old mainframe computers to mini, personal computers and client/server architecture; from the use of punch cards to video displays and voice and finally from batch processed to online and networked information.

Question two: Why are database systems so important in the enterprise world?
Answer: The importance of database systems in todays enterprise world can be explained in the following lines: Firstly, database systems help to deal with the valuable information of enterprises that came to see that information is a very important asset just like cash or any other important asset and this information needed to be very well managed in order to get the organizational success. By doing this they had to incorporate means (database systems) to store it for easy access and use when needed. Secondly, database systems that needed better ways of storing and retrieving information were important after there had been an explosive growth of computer technology in the enterprise world whereby systems such as storage and retrieval have developed tremendously and became more sophisticated. Thirdly, database systems help in dealing with the very increasing demand for information by companies that need more and newer types of information; and this could be difficult without the development of new and powerful database systems. Fourthly, new and developed database systems are very important in the enterprises because of the inadequacy of earlier data systems that were unable to meet the everincreasing demand for information.

Finally, database systems are very important to companies that need to store and manage large volumes of data, easy finding, retrieving and protection of information that is needed for operations and decision-making.

Question three: What are the key ideas behind the relational model? Compare it with the other models that appear in the article.
Answer: Firstly, a data model represents the data requirements for an organization and it is created in the first place in order to design an organizational database. The model represents real world data requirements and shows the arrangement of the data structures. Secondly, the ideas behind the relational database model are that it is a superior data model which were developed in order to address the drawbacks of the models (hierarchical and network) which preceded it, by organizing data as tables (with relationships) and by forming rows with many fields or attributes. Thirdly, the relational model is better than the hierarchical model and the network model that came before it. On one hand, the hierarchical model was based on the introduction of parental-child relationship between records in the database; whereby the origin was called the root from which several branches have data at different levels. The main problem with this model was that when there was any modification or addition needed in the structure, the whole structure needed alteration and this made the task difficult and boring. The network data model on the other hand was made with the introduction of data items as sets but also followed the same technology of pointers (just like the hierarchical model) to define relationships while bringing in many relationships. Therefore, both of these (first) models needed physical pointers to connect related data occurrences and this was really a hindrance in the data processes because every time you needed to reorganize the data, move it to a different storage area or change it over to another storage you had to rewrite the physical addresses in the data records. Furthermore, the relational model solves the problems of hierarchical and network database models by establishing connections between related data occurrences by means of logical links implemented through foreign keys, and this without having to introduce any levels but just creating tables and relationships between them without physical pointers. Finally, despite the usefulness of the relational data model over the hierarchical and network models, the object-relational data system came after it to deal with the continued demand for information and provide solutions for handling complex data types by combining the ability of object technology to handle advanced types of relationships with features of data integrity, reliability and recovery that were present in the relational model.

Question four: Briefly describe, using two or three paragraphs, what a database system is from your point of view.
Answer: Firstly, a database system is a computer application that controls the storage, management and retrieval of data in an organization. Secondly, I understand a database system as a computer application that accepts user inputs of similar data, accepts modifications and/or updates of data and facilitate the easy sharing of the same throughout the organization or at least through concerned departments, units or individuals. Thirdly and finally, I understand a database system as a program run on sophisticated computers with big processors and disk memories that are controlled by IT specialists and facilitate easy and quick storage, retrieval and use of data in an organization.

Question five: Imagine a company that has eight factories around the world and wants to install a database system. Discuss whether the company should use a centralized database in the main factory or one installed in each factory.
Answer: Whether this company should use a centralized database in the main factory or one installed in each factory is a management decision depending on the set up of the company and the requirements of data or information in the company. But here Ill just discuss what might happen in each one of the two scenarios. On one hand if this company has a centralized computer system then it will use a centralized database in a central server machine that is easily administered and this helps control the flow of data. However, even though this type of database is economical and easy to administer, the retrieval of information at remote factories might be difficult if the network is not good and this might hamper the work to be done at these factories. On the other hand, if the company uses distributed databases at each and every factory, it might be easy to work on individually because each factory has a database that deals with smaller data sets and is interlinked with the others through a network, but this is regarded by some as a wastage of resources even though it might increase productivity where wide area networks dont have to be relied upon by the company for the communication between its databases whose systems can be homogeneous (same type) or heterogeneous (different types) with the latter being extra flexible but difficult to administer and control.

Question six: Do you have any experience in your professional life with database systems? Write a few sentences about that experience, saying if you found them useful.
Answer: My experience with database systems in my professional life backs in the years 2008 and 2009 when I was working with a company that had operations in fourteen countries and with only one central database at the headquarters. All the users at the branches or subsidiary countries had to remotely access, store and retrieve the information regarding clients and sometimes this could take time due to connectivity issues by the Internet service providers. I could imagine how easy it was for the IT people at head office who could manage all the data without having to travel but sometimes any lack of (enough bandwidth) Internet at the headquarters could affect the work to be done in all the countries. Even though this was efficient for the company, the overall experience with the clients queries in busiest times wasnt an easy task. But again there was no need for IT specialists at the branches since little was to be done on the network administration and computer maintenance.