Database

A database is a well-organized collection of data that is kept in a digital location and can be accessed via that location. File systems are a good option for the storing of smaller databases, whereas computer clusters or the cloud are often used for the hosting of larger databases. The design of databases encompasses both formal techniques and practical considerations. Some of these include data modelling, efficient data representation and storage, query languages, security and privacy of sensitive data, and issues pertaining to distributed computing, such as supporting concurrent access and fault tolerance.

A database management system, sometimes known as a DBMS, is a piece of software that captures data and performs analysis on it through interacting with end users, applications, and the database itself. In addition to this, the DBMS software incorporates the fundamental features that are made available to manage the database. A database system is a collective term for the database, the database management system (DBMS), and the applications that are connected to the database. It is common practise to use the word "database" to refer, in a more general sense, to any of the DBMS, the database system, or an application that is connected with the database.

Database management systems may be categorised by the many types of database models that they support, according to computer scientists. The 1980s saw the rise of relational databases as the industry standard. The great majority of them employ SQL for creating and querying data, and they represent data as rows and columns in a sequence of tables. The decade of the 2000s saw the rise in popularity of non-relational databases, sometimes known as NoSQL for short. These databases make use of a variety of query languages.