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What Is A Database And Where Are They Used?

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INTRODUCTION
Throughout the history of mankind, there has always been a need to record information. For thousands of years ‘physical’ records were used, whether it be an Ancient Egyptian chiselling hieroglyphics onto stone tablets in 4500BC, or a bank teller in the 1940’s writing bank account deals in a paper customer account book. It wasn’t until 1956 that the first computer, the LEO 1 (Lyons Electronic Office 1) was used for a commercial business application. It was a very simple system, it was used by Ford Motors for payroll calculations as well as being used by the Met Office (Wikipedia, 2015) Over the last 50 years since then computers have revolutionised businesses allowing for billions of records to be stored and accessed in a …show more content…

THE ADVANTAGES OF USING DATABASES WITHIN BUSINESSES
There are significant advantages to using databases in a business, especially in large companies. The main benefit of databases is that they save time. With the use of a simple queries, millions of records can be searches in a matter of seconds to give the information needed. Think about how long it would take to go through a million paper records held in files.
Another great benefit is that the databases can be accessed by multiple users in multiple locations at the same time. For instance, Specsavers may have 1700 branches across the UK, which need to order frames from a central warehouse. In order to know if the frame a customer requires is in stock, every branch needs to access the central database containing the stock values.

Furthermore the users of databases can be assigned restrictions as to what they can view and update, which also relates to how databases can actually be a lot more secure than paper records with the use of passwords and encryption.

THE RANGE OF THREATS TO A DATABASE
Although databases are an excellent tool for companies to utilise, they also have their drawbacks. The most prevalent is unauthorised access, which can result in data be stolen or damaged, costing a company huge sums of money. SONY has been victim to multiple security breaches recently, in the most notable of which “hackers obtained some 100 terabytes of data

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