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| 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 initiatives 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 competitors 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 nonproprietary 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 initiatives for increased electronic commerce. Data warehouse features in enterprise DBMSs provide the foundation to support large data warehouses and capture source data in a timelier manner. Parallel database technology can improve performance and reliability of both transaction processing and data warehouse queries through incremental addition of computing 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. Utilization 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 enterprise 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 management 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 formulation, data modeling, normalization, application data requirements, and customization of database applications. After establishing these skills, you are ready to study the role of database specialists and the processing environments in which databases are used. This textbook presents the fundamental database technologies in each processing environment and relates these technologies to new advances in electronic commerce and enterprise computing. You will learn the vocabulary, architectures, and design issues of database technology that provide a background for advanced study of individual database management systems, electronic commerce applications, and enterprise computing. |