Database Administration > Database Design

Database Design

Database design is an area that is frequently overlooked when performance tuning and optimization are considered. In fact, when a database is small, poor design might not cause problems. However, as the database grows, so does the number of problems instigated by poor logical and physical design. Most database systems fit into one of three categories:

Transactional systems, often referred to as On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases   Databases used for reporting, commonly known as Decision Support Systems (DSS)   Data warehouses (DW). Data warehouses are mainly used for high-level trend analyses. Such databases serve as the back end for On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications. The first two categories of databases (OLTP and DSS) are built using the relational modeling principles. Data warehouses are built using dimensional modeling.

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