Using a DBMS to manage data has many advantages:
- Data independence: Application programs should be as independent as possible from details of data representation and storage. The DBMS can provide an abstract view of the data to insulate application code from such details.
- Efficient data access: A DBMS utilizes a variety of sophisticated techniques to store and retrieve data efficiently. This feature is especially important if the data is stored on external storage devices.
- Data integrity and security: If data is always accessed through the DBMS, the DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on the data. For example, before inserting salary information for an employee, the DBMS can check that the department budget is not exceeded. Also, the DBMS can enforce access controls that govern what data is visible to different classes of users.
- Data administration: When several users share the data, centralizing the administration of data can offer significant improvements. Experienced professionals who understand the nature of the data being managed, and how different groups of users use it, can be responsible for organizing the data representation to minimize redundancy and for fine-tuning the storage of the data to make retrieval
efficient. - Concurrent access and crash recovery: A DBMS schedules concurrent accesses to the data in such a manner that users can think of the data as being accessed by only one user at a time. Further, the DBMS protects users from the effects of system failures.
- Reduced application development time: Clearly, the DBMS supports many important functions that are common to many applications accessing data stored in the DBMS. This, in conjunction with the high-level interface to the data, facilitates quick development of applications. Such applications are also likely to be
more robust than applications developed from scratch because many important
tasks are handled by the DBMS instead of being implemented by the application.
