When is a database not a database? When it is a spreadsheet. What do spreadsheets have to do with databases do you ask? Spreadsheets are actually very rudimentary databases and, while not advisable, ...

This post is one of a series that introduces the fundamentals of NOSQL databases, and their role in Big Data Analytics. What is an object-oriented Database? An object oriented database manages objects ...

It’s a common mistake: a company puts a poorly performing database on larger and larger servers, throwing more and more money away while making the same mistakes, but the database never gets any ...

This post is one of a series that introduces the fundamentals of NOSQL databases, and their role in Big Data Analytics. What is an XML database? XML databases use XML to model and query data. XML is a ...

Many people claim to understand the basics of good data and database hygiene. Often, these same people claim it is all very simple and very obvious. However, when peering into existing code and ...

File-based databases have been around since the dawn of computing. We’ve always needed to have a way of storing records of the same kind of information. In the PC world, we ended up with very popular ...

In addition to needing an operating system, some embedded systems will need a structure for organizing data. In this article I discuss various ways of storing and retrieving data. Where appropriate, I ...