Question

Bonadio Electrical Supplies distributes electrical components to the construction industry. The company began as a local supplier 15 yrs ago and has grown rapidly to become a major competitor in the North central U.S. As the business grew and variety of components to be stocked expanded, Bonadio acquired a computer and implemented an inventory control system. Other applications such as accounts receivable, account payable, payroll, and sale analysis were gradually computerized as each function expanded. Because of its operational importance, the inventory system has been upgraded to an online system, while all the other applications are operating in batch mode. Over the years, the company has developed or acquired more than 100 application programs and maintains hundreds of files. Bonadio faces stiff competition from local suppliers throughout its marketing area. At a management meeting, the sales manager complained about the difficulty obtaining immediate, current information to respond to customer inquiries. Other managers states that they also had difficulty obtaining timely data from the system. As the result, the controller engaged a consulting firm to explore the situation. The consultant recommended installing a database management system (DBSM), and the company complied, employing Jack Gibbons as the database administrator.

At a recent management meeting, Gibbons presented an overview of the DBMS. Gibbons explained that the databases approach assumes an organizational, data oriented viewpoint as it recognizes that a centralized database represents a vital resource. Instead of being assigned to applications, information is more appropriately used and managed for the entire organization. The operating system physically moves data to and from disk storage, while the DBMS is the software program that controls the data definition library that specifies the data structures and characteristics. As the result. both the roles of the application programs and query software and the tasks of the application programers and users are simplified. Under the database approach, the data are available to all users within security guidelines.

a. Explain the basic difference between a file-oriented system and database management system.

b. Describe at least 3 advantages and at least 3 disadvantages of the database management system.

c. Describe the duties and responsibilities of Jack Gibbons, the database administrator. (CMA Adapted)

Answer 1

A.)

B.)

Advantages of Database Management System (DBMS)

1. Better data sharing

The main advantage of DBMS is that it helps to create an environment in which the end users get better access to more and structured data. This structured and easy access makes it possible for end users to respond quickly to the change in their environment.

2. Better data security

Easy accessibility creates greater risks of data security breaches. Corporation invests a considerable amount of money, time, and effort to ensure the better security. A DBMS provides a framework for better implementation of data policies and data privacy.

3. Improved data integration

Wider access to well-structured data promotes combined a view of organisation’s operations and a richer view of the big picture. It becomes much easier to see the effects of one segment of the company on the other segment.

4. Minimized data inconsistency

Data inconsistency results due to the variable version of the same data in different places.

5. Improved decision making

Improved and better-managed data makes it possible to generate better quality information which helps in better decision making. The quality of the information processed depends on the quality if the underlying data. A DBMS does not guarantee data quality but gives a framework to facilitate data quality initiatives.

6. Increased end-user productivity

Easy accessibility and availability of data, along with the tools that convert data into usable information, permits end users to make informed decisions. This brings the difference success and failure in the global economy.

Disadvantage of Database Management System (DBMS)

Although the database system yields significant advantages these database systems do carry considerable disadvantages.

1. Increased costs

One of the disadvantages of DBMS is database systems require sophisticated hardware, software, and highly skilled personnel. The cost of maintaining these requisites and manage a database system can be substantial. Training, licensing, and regulation compliance costs are often unheeded when database systems are employed.

2. Management intricacy

Database systems interface with many different technologies and have a significant impact on a company’s resources and culture. The changes introduced by the adoption of a database system must be properly managed to ensure that they help advance the company’s objectives. Given the fact that database systems hold crucial company data that are accessed from multiple sources, security issues must be assessed constantly.

3. Maintaining currency

To maximize the efficiency of the database system, you must keep your system current. Therefore, you must perform frequent updates, apply the latest patches, and security measures to all components.

As database technology advances rapidly, personnel training costs tend to be significant. Given the heavy investment in technology and personnel training, companies might be reluctant to change database vendors.

As a consequence, vendors are less likely to offer pricing point advantages to existing customers, and those customers might be limited in their choice of database system components.

4. Frequent upgrade/replacement cycles

DBMS vendors frequently upgrade their products by adding new functionality. Such new features often come bundled in new upgrade versions of the software. Some of these versions require hardware upgrades. Not only do the upgrades themselves cost money, but it also costs money to train database users and administrators to properly use and manage the new features.

C.)

Duties of Jack Gibbons as a database administrator

A database administrator's responsibilities can include the following tasks:

• Installing and upgrading the database server and application tools
• Allocating system storage and planning storage requirements for the database system
• Modifying the database structure, as necessary, from information given by application developers
• Enrolling users and maintaining system security
• Ensuring compliance with database vendor license agreement
• Controlling and monitoring user access to the database
• Monitoring and optimizing the performance of the database
• Planning for backup and recovery of database information
• Maintaining archived data
• Backing up and restoring databases
• Contacting database vendor for technical support
• Generating various reports by querying from database as per need
• Managing and monitoring data replication
• Acting as liaison with users

Responsibilities of Jack Gibbons

As a database administrator, Jack Gibbos need to:

• establish the needs of users and monitoring user access and security
• monitor performance and manage parameters in order to provide fast responses to front-end users
• map out the conceptual design for a planned database
• consider both back-end organisation of data and front-end accessibility for end-users
• refine the logical design so that it can be translated into a specific data model
• further refining the physical design to meet system storage requirements
• install and test new versions of the database management system (DBMS)
• maintain data standards, including adherence to the Data Protection Act
• write database documentation, including data standards, procedures and definitions for the data dictionary (metadata)
• control access permissions and privileges
• develop, manage and test back-up and recovery plans
• ensure that storage and archiving procedures are functioning correctly
• carry out capacity planning
• work closely with IT project managers, database programmers and multimedia programmers
• communicate regularly with technical, applications and operational staff to ensure database integrity and security
• commission and install new applications and customise existing applications in order to make them fit for purpose
• manage the security and disaster recovery aspects of a database.