Operational database

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Operational database management systems (also referred to as OLTP databases or online transaction processing databases), are used to update data in real-time. These types of databases allow users to do more than simply view archived data. Operational databases allow you to modify that data (add, change or delete data), doing it in real-time. [1] OLTP databases provide transactions as main abstraction to guarantee data consistency that guarantee the so-called ACID properties. Basically, the consistency of the data is guaranteed in the case of failures and/or concurrent access to the data.

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History

Since the early 1990s, the operational database software market has been largely taken over by SQL engines. In 2014, the operational DBMS market (formerly OLTP) was evolving dramatically, with new, innovative entrants and incumbents supporting the growing use of unstructured data and NoSQL DBMS engines, as well as XML databases and NewSQL databases. NoSQL databases typically have focused on scalability and have renounced to data consistency by not providing transactions as OLTP system do. Operational databases are increasingly supporting distributed database [2] architecture that can leverage distribution to provide high availability and fault tolerance through replication and scale out ability.

The growing role of operational databases in the IT industry is moving fast from legacy databases to real-time operational databases capable to handle distributed web and mobile demand and to address Big data challenges. Recognizing this, Gartner started to publish the Magic Quadrant for Operational Database Management Systems in October 2013. [3]

List of operational databases

Notable operational databases include:

Database platformDatabase model SQL Support NoSQL SupportManaged objectsACID-transactions
Aerospike Key–Value StoreNoYeskey-value pairsNone
Altibase Relational databaseYesNotabular dataACID transactions
Apache Cassandra Key-value storeNoYeskey-value pairsNone
Apache HBase Key-value storeYes (Phoenix)Yeskey-value pairsACID-transactions
Cloudant Document-Oriented DatabaseNoYesJSONNone
Clusterpoint Document-Oriented DatabaseYes (essential SQL)YesXML, JSON, text dataDistributed ACID-transactions
Clustrix Relational DatabaseYes (newSQL)Notabular dataACID-transactions
Couchbase Document-Oriented DatabaseYes (N1QL)YesJSON, key-value pairsDistributed Multi-Document ACID transactions
CouchDB Document-Oriented DatabaseNoYesJSONNone
IBM Db2 Relational Database, Data WarehouseYesYesJSON, key-value pairs, tabular data, XMLACID-transactions
EnterpriseDB Relational DatabaseYesNotabular dataACID-transactions
FoundationDB Key-value storeYesNokey-value pairsACID-transactions
Ingres Relational DatabaseYesNotabular dataACID-transactions
MarkLogic Document-Oriented DatabaseYesYes (XQuery and Javascript)XML and JSONACID-transactions
Microsoft SQL Server Relational DatabaseYesNotabular dataACID-transactions
MongoDB Document-Oriented DatabaseNoYesBSONNone
NuoDB Relational DatabaseYes (newSQL)Notabular dataACID-transactions
Oracle Relational DatabaseYesYesmulti-modelACID-transactions
OrientDB Document-oriented DatabaseYesYeskey-value pairsACID-transactions [4]
Riak Key-value storeNoYeskey-value pairsNone
SAP HANA Relational DatabaseYesNotabular dataACID-transactions
ScyllaDB Key-value storeNoYeskey-value pairsNone
VoltDB Relational DatabaseYes (newSQL)Notabular dataACID-transactions
YugabyteDB Relational Database (YSQL), Key-value store (YCQL)Yes (newSQL)Yestabular data, JSONACID-transactions

Use in business

Operational databases are used to store, manage and track real-time business information. For example, a company might have an operational database used to track warehouse/stock quantities. As customers order products from an online web store, an operational database can be used to keep track of how many items have been sold and when the company will need to reorder stock. An operational database stores information about the activities of an organization, for example customer relationship management transactions or financial operations, in a computer database.

Operational databases allow a business to enter, gather, and retrieve large quantities of specific information, such as company legal data, financial data, call data records, personal employee information, sales data, customer data, data on assets and many other information. An important feature of storing information in an operational database is the ability to share information across the company and over the Internet. Operational databases can be used to manage mission-critical business data, to monitor activities, to audit suspicious transactions, or to review the history of dealings with a particular customer. They can also be part of the actual process of making and fulfilling a purchase, for example in e-commerce.

Data warehouse terminology

In data warehousing, the term is even more specific: the operational database is the one which is accessed by an operational system (for example a customer-facing website or the application used by the customer service department) to carry out regular operations of an organization. Operational databases usually use an online transaction processing database which is optimized for faster transaction processing (create, read, update and delete operations). An operational database is the source for a data warehouse. [1] Data from an operational database can be loaded into an operational data store at a data warehouse before the data is processed into the data warehouse.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Data warehouse</span> Centralized storage of knowledge

In computing, a data warehouse, also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place that are used for creating analytical reports for workers throughout the enterprise. This is beneficial for companies as it enables them to interrogate and draw insights from their data and make decisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Database</span> Organized collection of data in computing

In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and analyze the data. The DBMS additionally encompasses the core facilities provided to administer the database. The sum total of the database, the DBMS and the associated applications can be referred to as a database system. Often the term "database" is also used loosely to refer to any of the DBMS, the database system or an application associated with the database.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Db2</span> Relational model database server

Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON and XML. The brand name was originally styled as DB2 until 2017, when it changed to its present form.

A database transaction symbolizes a unit of work, performed within a database management system against a database, that is treated in a coherent and reliable way independent of other transactions. A transaction generally represents any change in a database. Transactions in a database environment have two main purposes:

  1. To provide reliable units of work that allow correct recovery from failures and keep a database consistent even in cases of system failure. For example: when execution prematurely and unexpectedly stops in which case many operations upon a database remain uncompleted, with unclear status.
  2. To provide isolation between programs accessing a database concurrently. If this isolation is not provided, the programs' outcomes are possibly erroneous.

Oracle Database is a proprietary multi-model database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation.

In database systems, isolation determines how transaction integrity is visible to other users and systems. A lower isolation level increases the ability of many users to access the same data at the same time, but also increases the number of concurrency effects users might encounter. Conversely, a higher isolation level reduces the types of concurrency effects that users may encounter, but requires more system resources and increases the chances that one transaction will block another.

Online transaction processing (OLTP) is a type of database system used in transaction-oriented applications, such as many operational systems. "Online" refers to that such systems are expected to respond to user requests and process them in real-time. The term is contrasted with online analytical processing (OLAP) which instead focuses on data analysis.

MarkLogic is an American software business that develops and provides an enterprise NoSQL database, which is also named MarkLogic. They have offices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

A column-oriented DBMS or columnar DBMS is a database management system (DBMS) that stores data tables by column rather than by row. Benefits include more efficient access to data when only querying a subset of columns, and more options for data compression. However, they are typically less efficient for inserting new data.

SAP IQ is a column-based, petabyte scale, relational database software system used for business intelligence, data warehousing, and data marts. Produced by Sybase Inc., now an SAP company, its primary function is to analyze large amounts of data in a low-cost, highly available environment. SAP IQ is often credited with pioneering the commercialization of column-store technology.

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H-Store is an experimental database management system (DBMS). It was designed for online transaction processing applications. H-Store was developed by a team at Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale University in 2007 by researchers Michael Stonebraker, Sam Madden, Andy Pavlo and Daniel Abadi.

The following is provided as an overview of and topical guide to databases:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SingleStore</span> Database management system

SingleStore is a proprietary, cloud-native database designed for data-intensive applications. A distributed, relational, SQL database management system (RDBMS) that features ANSI SQL support, it is known for speed in data ingest, transaction processing, and query processing.

NewSQL is a class of relational database management systems that seek to provide the scalability of NoSQL systems for online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads while maintaining the ACID guarantees of a traditional database system.

Hybrid transaction/analytical processing (HTAP) is a term created by Gartner Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, in its early 2014 research report Hybrid Transaction/Analytical Processing Will Foster Opportunities for Dramatic Business Innovation. As defined by Gartner:

Hybrid transaction/analytical processing (HTAP) is an emerging application architecture that "breaks the wall" between transaction processing and analytics. It enables more informed and "in business real time" decision making.

In the field of database design, a multi-model database is a database management system designed to support multiple data models against a single, integrated backend. In contrast, most database management systems are organized around a single data model that determines how data can be organized, stored, and manipulated. Document, graph, relational, and key–value models are examples of data models that may be supported by a multi-model database.

SequoiaDB is a multi-model NewSQL database.

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service and offered by Microsoft. It is designed to provide high availability, scalability, and low-latency access to data for modern applications. Unlike traditional relational databases, Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database, which means it can handle unstructured and semi-structured, in addition to structured, data types.

Database scalability is the ability of a database to handle changing demands by adding/removing resources. Databases use a host of techniques to cope.

References

  1. 1 2 "Operational Database (ODB)". Techopedia. 15 November 2016.
  2. Ozsu, M. Tamer; Valduriez, Patrick (2011). Principles of Distributed Databases. Springer. ISBN   978-1-4419-8833-1.
  3. "Gartner Magic Quadrant for Operational Database Management Systems". Gartner.com.
  4. http://orientdb.com/docs/last/Transactions.html