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<h2 class="title"><a id="intro"></a>Chapter 1. Introduction </h2>
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<div class="toc">
<p>
<b>Table of Contents</b>
</p>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="intro.html#intro_data">An introduction to data
management</a>
</span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="intro_terrain.html">Mapping the terrain: theory and
practice</a>
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<span class="sect2">
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<dt>
<span class="sect2">
<a href="intro_terrain.html#idm2046400">Relational databases</a>
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<span class="sect2">
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<span class="sect2">
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<dt>
<span class="sect2">
<a href="intro_dbis.html#idm2939256">Data management services</a>
</span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="sect2">
<a href="intro_dbis.html#idm2483664">Design</a>
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<a href="intro_need.html">Do you need Berkeley DB?</a>
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<span class="sect1">
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<a href="intro_distrib.html">What does the Berkeley DB
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</span>
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<span class="sect2">
<a href="intro_products.html#idm1455680">Berkeley DB Transactional Data Store</a>
</span>
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<span class="sect2">
<a href="intro_products.html#idm851864">Berkeley DB High Availability</a>
</span>
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</dl>
</dd>
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<div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="intro_data"></a>An introduction to data
management</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Cheap, powerful computing and networking have created
countless new applications that could not have existed a
decade ago. The advent of the World-Wide Web, and its
influence in driving the Internet into homes and businesses,
is one obvious example. Equally important, though, is the
shift from large, general-purpose desktop and server computers
toward smaller, special-purpose devices with built-in
processing and communications services.
</p>
<p>
As computer hardware has spread into virtually every corner
of our lives, of course, software has followed. Software
developers today are building applications not just for
conventional desktop and server environments, but also for
handheld computers, home appliances, networking hardware, cars
and trucks, factory floor automation systems, cellphones, and
more.
</p>
<p>
While these operating environments are diverse, the problems
that software engineers must solve in them are often
strikingly similar. Most systems must deal with the outside
world, whether that means communicating with users or
controlling machinery. As a result, most need some sort of I/O
system. Even a simple, single-function system generally needs
to handle multiple tasks, and so needs some kind of operating
system to schedule and manage control threads. Also, many
computer systems must store and retrieve data to track
history, record configuration settings, or manage
access.
</p>
<p>
Data management can be very simple. In some cases, just
recording configuration in a flat text file is enough. More
often, though, programs need to store and search a large
amount of data, or structurally complex data. Database
management systems are tools that programmers can use to do
this work quickly and efficiently using off-the-shelf
software.
</p>
<p>
Of course, database management systems have been around for
a long time. Data storage is a problem dating back to the
earliest days of computing. Software developers can choose
from hundreds of good, commercially-available database
systems. The problem is selecting the one that best solves the
problems that their applications face.
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