Database Management - History Of Database Management

HISTORY OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Although various rudimentary DBMSs had been in use prior to IBM Corp.'s release of Information Management System (IMS) in 1966, IMS was the first commercially available DBMS. IMS was considered a hierarchical database, in which standardized data records were organized within other standardized data records, creating a hierarchy of information about a single entry. In the late 1960s, firms like Honeywell Corp. and General Electric Corp. developed DBMSs based on a network data model, but the next major database management breakthrough came in 1970 when a research scientist at IBM first outlined his theory for relational databases. Six years later, IBM completed a prototype for a relational DBMS.

In 1977, computer programmers Larry Ellison and Robert Miner co-founded Oracle Systems Corp. Their combined experience designing specialized database programs for governmental organizations landed the partners a $50,000 contract from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop a customized database program. While working on the CIA project, Ellison and Miner became interested in IBM's efforts to develop a relational database, which involved Structured Query Language (SQL). Recognizing that SQL would allow computer users to retrieve data from a variety of sources and sensing that SQL would become a database industry standard, Ellison and Miner began working on developing a program similar to the relational DBMS being developed by IBM. In 1978, Oracle released its own relational DBMS, the world's first relational database management system (RDBMS) using SQL. Oracle began shipping its RDBMS the following year, nearly two years before IBM shipped its first version of DB2, which would become a leading RDBMS competing with the database management applications of industry giants like Microsoft Corp. and Oracle. Relational databases eventually outpaced all other database types, mainly because they allowed for highly complex queries and could support various tools which enhanced their usefulness.

In 1983, Oracle developed the first portable RDBMS, which allowed firms to run their DBMS on various machines including mainframes, workstations, and personal computers. Soon thereafter, the firm also launched a distributed DBMS, based on SQL-Star software, which granted users the same kind of access to data stored on a network they would have if the data were housed in a single computer. By the end of the decade, Oracle had grown into the world's leading enterprise DBMS provider with more than $100 million in sales.

It wasn't long before DBMSs were developed for use on individual PCs. In 1993, Microsoft Corp. created an application called Access. The program competed with FileMaker Inc.'s FileMaker Pro, a database application initially designed for Macintosh machines.