This is the Week 3 Podcast for the course, “Information Technology

Infrastructure.“ The topic for this week is and Data Management.

The purpose of an information system is to store, retrieve, and process information. Computer hardware and software are of little use to an organization without data to process. One of the most powerful features of IT is its ability to structure and organize data so that all parts of the organization can have consistent content and representation. You will see that a management system (DBMS) can enforce data integrity rules and manage relationships among different data elements. Because the DBMS mediates between the user and the stored data, it can restrict who can see and change any piece of data, arbitrate among conflicting uses, and keep an audit trail of data access. You will learn about , which represents structured data in a diagram format, and , which can discover hidden patterns in the organization’s data.

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• Explain how database management software helps business

professionals and supports the operations and management of a business

• Provide examples of relational and columnar databases (data

warehousing)

[Week 3 > Resources]

Let’s take a look at the resources you’ll be using this week.

1 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc. This week, you will read Chapter 5 of the textbook to understand Data Resource

Management. You will also access an online article that provides information on ways to evaluate columnar databases. Once again, you will listen to the IT

Insider audio interview.

Recall from the Course Home Resources page how the media files are delivered in three formats. Be sure you subscribe to the weekly podcasts in iTunes.

Outlook, Internet Explorer 7 or higher, Firefox, Safari, and other applications save lists of RSS Feeds that you subscribe to. You can determine how you want to receive your RSS Feeds. Note: The RSS Feed does not work well with Internet

Explorer 6 or lower.

Let’s outline the individual resources that you will need for this week.

[Week 3 > Reading 1]

Chapter 5 introduces fundamental concepts of data storage and representation.

It demonstrates several different ways that database management systems can organize a collection of data into a database, and how those databases may be designed, created, maintained, and used to support business operations.

Please read the entire chapter to prepare for this week’s assignments.

[Week 3 > Audio]

2 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc. You will now hear a summary of Chapter 5.

This is a summary of Chapter 5 from the textbook Introduction to Information

Systems written by O’Brien and Marakas and published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Publishers.

The title of the chapter is Data Resource Management. This chapter defines the data concepts that are the foundation data resource management.

As you read the Real World Case 1 about how Amazon, eBay, and Google are opening their databases to others, consider whether you agree or disagree with this approach, and why.

Chapter 5 details several types of database structures: hierarchical, network, relational, object-oriented, and multidimensional. In the hierarchical structure, data follows a tree-like arrangement and all relationships are one-to-many. The network structure can reflect many-to-many relationships. The relational structure, which arranges data in tables, is currently the most commonly used. A of a represents a record, and a represents a particular data field. It is possible to build relationships with data in two different tables that have a in common. Be sure to read about the operations that a can perform. The multidimensional database is a specialized form of the relational database that can optimize online analytical processing (OLAP) applications.

3 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc. The textbook defines the objected-oriented database management system

(OODBMS) as “one of the key technologies of a new generation of multimedia

Web-based applications.” An object consists of data values, or attributes, that describe an entity, and operations that can be performed on the attributes. The

OODBMS supports advanced programming concepts, including encapsulation, which groups together all related parts of a complex data type. The object- oriented concept of inheritance means you can reuse the characteristics of one object type to create new, specialized types.

In the section, Evaluation of Database Structures, you will see how hierarchical data structures were used for routine transactions in the early years of data processing and computing. Relational databases allow the end user to gain information based on unplanned requests, but there are limitations to the relational database structure. For example, relational database systems cannot handle large quantities of business transactions efficiently. Thus, database management software and object-oriented and multidimensional models are growing steadily to meet the demands of today’s businesses.

Three key elements in database development are the

(DBA), (DDL), and Data Dictionary. The DBA is a person who controls the development, efficiency, and security of an organization’s database assets. The DBA collaborates with business managers and end users to engage in data planning and activities.

Database developers use specific DDLs that are provided in products such as

4 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc. Oracle or IBM’s DB2 to develop and modify the content, relationships, and structure of the organization’s database. The Data Dictionary is a catalog of , or data about data. It describes the contents of a database.

Data resource management is a vital component of an organization’s efforts to meet stakeholders’ needs. The chapter briefly outlines different operational databases, distributed databases, external databases, and hypermedia databases. A is a central storage area that transforms and catalogs data that has been extracted from the operational databases of a business. A data warehouse helps managers and other decision-makers to use and analyze data for market research and decision support. Data marts, or subsets of data warehouses, hold data that is specific to some part of a company.

Data mining is the process of sorting through and analyzing data stored in the data warehouse to discover historical trends, correlations, and patterns to support decision-making and help the business gain competitive advantage.

File processing systems organize, store and process independent files of data records, but there are problems with file processing. According to the textbook, some of these problems include data redundancy, lack of data integration, data dependency, and lack of data integrity. These problems can lead to inaccurate, inconsistent, and incomplete data. Database management systems (DBMS) consolidate and integrate data into databases that can be accessed by different programs.

5 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc. Database maintenance is the process of updating the organization’s database to reflect changes in business operations. Other updates to the database may include changes in the data to ensure accuracy. Application developers can use information from the DBMS to build custom application programs.

This concludes the summary of Chapter 5.

[Week 3 > Reading 2]

Read the online article titled, How to Judge a Columnar Database, to learn methods to evaluate database applications.

[Week 3 > Video 2]

This week you will or listen to a video tutorial titled, "Relational Database."

In this video, you will get an overview of how an effective database is constructed along with the various features and functions. Now, let's watch or listen to the

"Relational Database" video.

[Week 3 > Video 3]

View or listen to the IT Insider interview to hear from a professional in the field of

Information Technology.

6 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc. [Week 3 > Midterm]

This week you will complete the midterm exam, and therefore, will not have a

Discussion.

The maximum number of points possible is equal to 60. Each question is worth

15 points.

Follow the directions in the online classroom to complete and submit the midterm exam.

You will need access to an Internet-enabled computer to complete this assignment.

7 © 2010, Laureate Higher Education Group, Inc.