"Evolving Databases"

Supervised by M.Holcombe

Abstract

Databases are one of the most useful applications of computer technology today. They are used almost ubiquitously in our society at present, and have been for a number of years. Almost every business uses similar technology, and every day millions of people interact with them, even if they are unaware of this basic fact at the time.

Whilst development of database technology has progressed, the basic idea behind data storage is generally realised in the use of relational database management systems, based on a concept first widely published in a paper written over 30 years ago. At present, computer systems are many times as powerful as 30 years ago, and so many of the underlying factors of legacy systems (e.g. small amounts of memory, slow processors) are no longer major issues.

In addition, the world and its data requirements have become very volatile, especially in the business domain. The purpose of this project is to investigate different methodologies of storing data, and evaluate them in respect to current DBMSs, particularly in relation to performance, and the flexibility of expanding them to adequately cope with new data requirements.