If you look around you, you’ll start to see data applications everywhere, powering your favorite shopping site, accelerating your food deliveries, and predicting inventory shortfalls before they occur. Data applications like Facebook real-time status updates, Uber driver tracking and Amazon’s recommendation engine have been core to digital transformation.
A database oriented application is a program whose primary purpose is entering and retrieving information from a computerized database. A database application facilitates simultaneous updates and queries from multiple users. For this kind of application there are two types of databases available – SQL database and NoSQL database.
SQL is the programming language used to interface with relational databases. (Relational databases model data as records in rows and tables with logical links between them). NoSQL is a class of DBMs that are non-relational and generally do not use SQL.
There are five practical differences between SQL and NoSQL:
- Language
- Scalability
- Structure
- Properties
- Support and communities
To create a database application, a developer runs wizards to declaratively assemble pages and navigation. Individual pages are organized using containers called regions. Once created, developers can modify an application by editing application attributes and add new pages using the Create Page Wizard. Developers can further manage the development process by creating page groups, locking and unlocking pages, adding developer and application comments, and accessing a variety of application, page, and cross page utilities and reports.
Database application development, whether custom or off-the-shelf, is a good decision when you need a handy tool for searching, sorting, calculating, reporting and sharing information. A base may also contain code to perform mathematical and statistical calculations to support queries sent by users.
Developing a database for your business can help you:
- reduce the amount of time you spend managing data
- analyze data in a variety of ways
- promote a disciplined approach to data management
- turn disparate information into a valuable resource
- improve the quality and consistency of information
Many businesses do not have the time or resources available to gather and process large quantities of information. This may lead to a lack of information about:
- how their business is performing
- how profitable their product lines are
- if customers are making repeat purchases
If you’re not sure how a database could help your business, see 5 reasons why your business needs a good database.
While data applications have a challenging set of requirements, the good news is that an ecosystem is emerging to help developers build these types of applications. You’re no longer wedded to just an OLTP database for your application. The even better news is that many of these components are also “modern” meaning that they’re cloud-native and easy to use, putting data apps within reach of all engineering teams. Here are a few of the components of the data system that developers are leaning on for this new type of application: Real-time Analytics Databases, Real-time Data Streams, Data API’s, Caching tools, Visualization tools.
If you are looking to build data applications and want to do it in an easy, simple and secure way, contact us at admin@colbygroup.net or call us at (443) 440-5041.