1<!--$Id: data.so,v 10.2 2006/08/25 23:24:38 bostic Exp $--> 2<!--Copyright (c) 1997,2008 Oracle. All rights reserved.--> 3<!--See the file LICENSE for redistribution information.--> 4<html> 5<head> 6<title>Berkeley DB Reference Guide: An introduction to data management</title> 7<meta name="description" content="Berkeley DB: An embedded database programmatic toolkit."> 8<meta name="keywords" content="embedded,database,programmatic,toolkit,btree,hash,hashing,transaction,transactions,locking,logging,access method,access methods,Java,C,C++"> 9</head> 10<body bgcolor=white> 11<table width="100%"><tr valign=top> 12<td><b><dl><dt>Berkeley DB Reference Guide:<dd>Introduction</dl></b></td> 13<td align=right><a href="../toc.html"><img src="../../images/ref.gif" alt="Ref"></a><a href="../intro/terrain.html"><img src="../../images/next.gif" alt="Next"></a> 14</td></tr></table> 15<p align=center><b>An introduction to data management</b></p> 16<p>Cheap, powerful computing and networking have created countless new 17applications that could not have existed a decade ago. The advent of the 18World-Wide Web, and its influence in driving the Internet into homes and 19businesses, is one obvious example. Equally important, though, is the 20shift from large, general-purpose desktop and server computers toward 21smaller, special-purpose devices with built-in processing and 22communications services.</p> 23<p>As computer hardware has spread into virtually every corner of our 24lives, of course, software has followed. Software developers today are 25building applications not just for conventional desktop and server 26environments, but also for handheld computers, home appliances, 27networking hardware, cars and trucks, factory floor automation systems, 28and more.</p> 29<p>While these operating environments are diverse, the problems that 30software engineers must solve in them are often strikingly similar. Most 31systems must deal with the outside world, whether that means 32communicating with users or controlling machinery. As a result, most 33need some sort of I/O system. Even a simple, single-function system 34generally needs to handle multiple tasks, and so needs some kind of 35operating system to schedule and manage control threads. Also, many 36computer systems must store and retrieve data to track history, record 37configuration settings, or manage access.</p> 38<p>Data management can be very simple. In some cases, just recording 39configuration in a flat text file is enough. More often, though, 40programs need to store and search a large amount of data, or 41structurally complex data. Database management systems are tools that 42programmers can use to do this work quickly and efficiently using 43off-the-shelf software.</p> 44<p>Of course, database management systems have been around for a long time. 45Data storage is a problem dating back to the earliest days of computing. 46Software developers can choose from hundreds of good, 47commercially-available database systems. The problem is selecting the 48one that best solves the problems that their applications face.</p> 49<table width="100%"><tr><td><br></td><td align=right><a href="../toc.html"><img src="../../images/ref.gif" alt="Ref"></a><a href="../intro/terrain.html"><img src="../../images/next.gif" alt="Next"></a> 50</td></tr></table> 51<p><font size=1>Copyright (c) 1996,2008 Oracle. All rights reserved.</font> 52</body> 53</html> 54