5 billion
images in its database?
There is a great deal to know about creating a good database, accessing a database from a program, growing a
database, and managing a database. Application programmers and database administrators need to understand
databases at this level in order to use them efficiently. Even computer scientists focused on other specialties
need to know about databases today. For instance, some of the newer operating systems use database technology
in their file systems for the storage of all information, not just information formally devoted to a particular
database. The benefits to the operating system include speed, space savings, and data security.
At a deeper level, computer scientists develop algorithms for sharing access to a database among many
users simultaneously. For instance, a site like Amazon.com may serve more that 100,000 users at once, and it??™s
important that each user??™s choices and purchases be kept distinct from one another. Likewise, when you reserve
an airplane seat on-line, it??™s important that two people on-line at the same time are not promised space in the
same seat!
Computer scientists also develop algorithms for making backup copies of the database to protect against
the possibility of data loss due to equipment failure.
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