Preface
Motivating Example
Paul Hong, the owner of International Industrial Adhesives, Inc., is elated about the recent
performance of his business but cautious about future prospects. Revenue and profit growth
exceeded even optimistic forecasts while expenses remained flat. He attributes the success
to the international economic recovery, usage of outsourcing to focus resources, and
strategic deployment of information technology. His elation about recent performance is
tempered by future prospects. The success of his business has attracted new competitors
focusing on his most profitable customers. The payback from costly new industry initia-
tives for electronic commerce is uncertain. New government regulations will significantly
increase the cost of operating as a public business, thus threatening his plans for an initial
public offering to raise capital. Despite euphoria about the recent success of his business,
he remains cautious about new directions to ensure continued growth of his business.
Paul Hong needs to evaluate information technology investments to stay ahead of com-
petitors and control costs of industry and government mandates. To match competitors, he
needs more detailed and timely data about industry trends, competitors' actions, and
distributor transactions. He wants to find a cost-effective solution to support an industry
initiative for electronic commerce. To prepare for operation as a public company, he must
conduct information technology audits and fulfill other government reporting requirements
for public companies. For all of these concerns, he is unsure about proprietary versus non-
proprietary technologies and standards.
These concerns involve significant usage of database technology as part of a growing
enterprise computing infrastructure. Transaction processing features in enterprise DBMSs
provide a foundation to ensure reliability of online order processing to support industry ini-
tiatives for increased electronic commerce. Data warehouse features in enterprise DBMSs
provide the foundation to support large data warehouses and capture source data in a time-
lier manner. Parallel database technology can improve performance and reliability of both
transaction processing and data warehouse queries through incremental addition of com-
puting capacity. Object database features provide the ability to manage large collections of
XML documents generated by industry initiatives for electronic commerce.
However, the solutions to Paul Hong's concerns are found not just in technology. Uti-
lization of the appropriate level of technology involves a vision for an organization's future,
a deep understanding of technology, and traditional management skills to manage risk.
Paul Hong realizes that his largest challenge is to blend these skills so that effective
solutions can be developed for International Industrial Adhesives, Inc.
Introduction
This textbook provides a foundation to understand database technology supporting enter-
prise computing concerns such as those faced by Paul Hong. As a new student of database
management, you first need to understand the fundamental concepts of database manage-
ment and the relational data model. Then you need to master skills in database design and
database application development. This textbook provides tools to help you understand
relational databases and acquire skills to solve basic and advanced problems in query for-
mulation, data modeling, normalization, application data requirements, and customization
of database applications.
V
5星 · 超过95%的资源 需积分: 9 24 浏览量
2010-06-03
15:51:44
上传
评论 3
收藏 13.27MB PDF 举报 
- 1
- 2
前往页