Databases - An Overview and Introduction

Like any area of technology, there is a lot to know about databases.  We are not going to cover all of them.  In this episode, we will look at popular modern databases and keep to a non-technical overview. Databases Come In Many Types There are many database solutions available on the market.  These range from the familiar relational databases to lesser-used ones like object databases.  Each of these has its own set of strengths and weaknesses to be assessed for your needs.  The only way to be capable of this sort of assessment is to become familiar with the types out there and the projects that are best for each. They Are Easy To Use The good news is that we have a large number of free and open source options that are available.  There are also a similar number of tools including Toad and DBVisualizer that helps us abstract everyday database administration tasks.  When you combine these avenues for easy access, there is no excuse for integrating a database in your application and building your experience. However, each database is a little different in usage and popularity.  We look at some reasonable steps to get started and then how to gain a more profound knowledge of this area of technology. Links and Resources DB Visualizer MySQL Home Page Database Design - A Crash Course