A centralized database is a database that is located, stored, and maintained in a single location. This location is most often a central computer or database system, for example a desktop or server CPU, or a mainframe computer. In most cases, a centralized database would be used by an organization (e.g. a business company) or an institution (e.g. a university.) Users access a centralized database through a computer network which is able to give them access to the central CPU, which in turn maintains to the database itself.
All of the information stored on the Centralized Database is accessible from a large number of different points, which in turn creates a significant amount of both advantages and disadvantages.
Centralized databases hold a substantial amount of advantages against other types of databases. Some of them are listed below:
- Data integrity is maximized and data redundancy is minimized, as the single storing place of all the data also implies that a given set of data only has one primary record. This aids in the maintaining of data as accurate and as consistent as possible and enhances data reliability.
- Generally bigger data security, as the single data storage location implies only a one possible place from which the database can be attacked and sets of data can be stolen or tampered with.
- Better data preservation than other types of databases due to often-included fault-tolerant setup.
- Easier for using by the end-user due to the simplicity of having a single database design.
- Generally easier data portability and database administration.
- More cost effective than other types of database systems as labor, power supply and maintenance costs are all minimized.
- Data kept in the same location is easier to be changed, re-organized, mirrored, or analyzed.
- All the information can be accessed at the same time from the same location.
- Updates to any given set of data are immediately received by every end-user.
Centralized databases also have a certain amount of limitations, such as those described below:
- Centralized databases are highly dependent on network connectivity. The slower the internet connection is, the longer the database access time needed will be.
- Bottlenecks can occur as a result of high traffic.
- Limited access by more than one person to the same set of data as there is only one copy of it and it is maintained in a single location. This can lead to major decreases in the general efficiency of the system.
- If there is no fault-tolerant setup and hardware failure occurs, all the data within the database will be lost.
- Since there is minimal to no data redundancy, if a set of data is unexpectedly lost it is very hard to retrieve it back, in most cases it would have to be done manually.
The underlying idea of centralized databases is that they should be able to receive, maintain, and complete every single request that the main system must perform by themselves. There is only one database file, kept at a single location on a given network.
The above is a brief about Centralized Database.Watch this space for more updates on the latest trends in Technology.