Advantages of DBMS (Database Management System)

Organizations need a system to store, manage and provide mechanisms to process and access data. DBMS does exactly that for organization of any size. Here are the most obvious advantages of DBMS.

Advantages of DBMS

Data Independence

Data Independence is the immunity of applications to change the storage structure and access strategy in adatabase. It gives freedom to DBA to create different views of same data for different users. DBA can change the storage structure or access strategy in response to changing requirements without modifying existing applications.

Reduction in Data Redundancy

Data in DBMS is centralized and shared by all the users. It reduces or controls redundancy. It is impractical to remove it completely.

Data Security

DBA can ensure that the only means of access to the database is through proper mechanism of login and password. He can define authorization checks to be carried out whenever access to sensitive data is attempted.

Flexibility

The DBA has the capability to flexibly handle the needs of users. It is done by providing view of only that data which is relevant for the user. It is an abstraction on the complete database. Once the data is stored in DBMS, it can allow the DBA to extract ad hoc information requests generated by users and applications.

Data Sharing

Existing applications can share the data in the database . New applications can be developed to operate on existing data. Data requirement of new application may be satisfied without creating any new data stores. Data Sharing takes the advantages of DBMS to another level

Enforces Integrity Constraints

It is ensured that the data is accurate. Centralized or distributed  control of the database helps in DBA to define validation procedures. These validation procedures are to be carried out whenever upadation on data is done by the user.

Enables Backup and Recovery

Damage may happen on any portion of data due to human error/power failure or hardware failure. It is most urgent to repair data with minimum delay and least effect possible on the system. DBA can define appropriate strategy for backing up data with a backup design. The relevant portion of the database can be reloaded on demand.

Persistence of Data

Data in a DBMS can be maintained for longer duration. The backup and Recovery procedures allow the DBA to maintain the data for many years. It can be used for long term analysis as in case of data mining or data warehousing.

Better Performance

DBMS can improve the performance of applications significantly with a careful data design  with future needs in mind. The reduction or elimination of data redundancy improves the access of data with the support of capability to create procedures, rules, constraints and management of transactions. This is a highly crucial aspect among advantages of DBMS

Disadvantages of a DBMS

While a DBMS solves various issues faced by organizations in data storage and management, it does have some disadvantages.

Complexity

Tthe features, advantages and easy of data managements makes DBMS, a complex software. To use it efficiently the organizations require services of experts like DBA, Database Designer and Developers. The software itself can be highly complicated to install, implement and make functional. Only a person who understands the functionality of DBMS can make good design and implementation decisions.

Size

Since DBMS is a complex software, it has a large size if compared with files storing similar data. The reason for the increase in size is that a DBMS has integrated tools and methods to create, manipulate and organize data. It needs large storage memory for installation and substantial amount of main memory to execute it.

Affects organization in case of failure

DBMS is a centralized repository of organizational data. If it fails due to human or other error, it can affect the operations of the organization. Failure of any component of DBMS also affects similarly.

Expensive

Implementation DBMS can be a costly affair for an organization due to its cost. The additional factors for making it expensive include new hardware, network communication and specialized staff. Converting existing data to be stored in the DBMS can also incur further expenditure.