Compared to the file systems, relational database management systems provide organizations with the capability to easily integrate and leverage the massive amounts of operational data into meaningful information systems. The evolution of high-powered database engines such as Oracle, SAP, SQL Server, Bann, Informix, Sybase etc has fostered the development of advanced "enabling" technologies including client / server, data warehousing, and online analytical processing, all of which comprise the core of today's state-of-the-art information management systems.

The Relational Database Model

Database is an integrated collection of related data. Given a specific data item, the structure of a database facilitates the access to data related to it. Relational database is a type of database based in the relational model; non-relational databases commonly use a hierarchical, network, or object-oriented model as their basis. Finally,a relational database management system is the software that manages a relational database. These systems come in several varieties, ranging from single-user desktop systems to full-featured, global, enterprise-wide systems.

Hierarchical and Network Models

Most of the database management systems used by commercial applications today are based on one of three basic models: the hierarchical model, the network model, or the relational model.

The first commercially available database management systems were of the CODASYL type, and many of them are still in use with mainframe-based, COBOL applications. Both network and hierarchical databases are quite complex in that they rely on the use of permanent internal pointers to relate records to each other. For example, in an accounts payable application, a vendor record might contain a physical pointer in its record structure that points to purchase order records. Each purchase order record in turn contains pointers to purchase order line item records.

The process of inserting, updating, and deleting records using these types of databases requires synchronization of the pointers, a task that must be performed by the application. As you might imagine, this pointer maintenance requires a significant amount of application code (usually written in COBOL) that at times can be quite cumbersome.

Elements of the Relational Model

Relational databases rely on the actual attribute values as opposed to internal pointers to link records. Instead of using an internal pointer from the vendor record to purchase order records, you would link the purchase order record to the vendor record using a common attribute from each record, such as the vendor identification number.

There are three basic components of the relational model:

Key Values and Referential Integrity

 Linking one relation to another typically involves an attribute that is common to both relations. The common attributes are usually a primary key from one table and a foreign key from the other.

Relational Algebra

RDBMS Kernel is an operating system (or set of subsystems), designed specifically for controlling data access; its primary functions are storing, retrieving, and securing data. Like an operating system.

The Data Dictionary

A fundamental difference between an RDBMS and other database and file systems is in the way that they access data. A RDBMS enables you to reference physical data in a more abstract, logical fashion, providing ease and flexibility in developing application code. Programs using an RDBMS access data through a database engine, creating independence from the actual data source and insulating applications from the details of the underlying physical data structures.