DBMS and Traditional File System, Disadvantage of DBMS

 DBMS and Traditional File System

1.      DBMS is very expensive but, the traditional file system is cheap.

2.      DBMS is good for the large system but, the traditional file system is good for a small system having a small number of items.

3.      DBMS required lots of effort for designing but, the traditional file system is very low design efforts.

4.      DBMS is highly secured but, the traditional file system is not secure.

5.      DBMS is data sharable but, the traditional file system is isolated data sharable.

6.      DBMS is flexible but, the traditional file system has a lack of flexibility and has many limitations.

7.      DBMS has no integrity but, the traditional file system has an integrity problem.

8.      DBMS has a complex backup system but, the traditional file system has a simple backup system.

 

Advantages of DBMS

1. It provides Data Independence. Application programs need to be independent of the details of data. DBMS provides the abstract view of the data.
2. It provides efficient data access. If a data is stored in external storage, a wide variety of sophisticated techniques are required to store and retrieve data efficiently.
3. It provides Data Integrity and Security. In order to maintain integrity, DBMS can enforce integrity constraints on the data.
4. It provides concurrent access and crashes recovery. Many users can access the database concurrently.
5. It provides data administration. When many users share the data, one central administration is required which can improve the performance.
6. It reduces application development time.

Disadvantage of DBMS

1. It is not advisable to use the database for small and simple applications.
2. It increases the complexity of the database.
3. Qualified personnel is required to manage the database. A trained staff is required to operate the database system.
4. It increases cost. Database system when increases the complexity also increases the cost of management.
5. It decreases the efficiency. Since it is multi-user software thus it becomes less efficient as compared to the software that is made to solve only one problem.

Limitations of Database Management System

Database Management System is quite useful compared to the file based management system. However, it does have some disadvantages. Some of those are as follows:

More Costly

Creating and managing a database is quite costly. High cost software and hardware is required for the database. Also highly trained staff is required to handle the database and it also needs continuous maintenance. All of these ends up making a database quite a costly venture.

High Complexity

A Database Management System is quite complex as it involves creating, modifying and editing a database. Consequently, the people who handle a database or work with it need to be quite skilled or valuable data can be lost.

Database handling staff required

As discussed in the previous point, database and DBMS are quite complex. Hence, skilled personnel are required to handle the database so that it works in optimum condition. This is a costly venture as these professionals need to be very well paid.

Database Failure

All the relevant data for any company is stored in a database. So it is imperative that the database works in optimal condition and there are no failures. A database failure can be catastrophic and can lead to loss or corruption of very important data.

High Hardware Cost

A database contains vast amount of data. So a large disk storage is required to store all this data. Sometimes extra storage may even be needed. All this increases hardware costs by a lot and makes a database quite expensive.

Huge Size

A database contains a large amount of data, especially for bigger organisations. This data may even increase as more data is updated into the database. All of these leads to a large size of the database. 

The bigger the database is, it is more difficult to handle and maintain. It is also more complex to ensure data consistency and user authentication across big databases. 

Upgradation Costs

Often new functionalities are added to the database.This leads to database upgradations. All of these upgradations cost a lot of money. Moreover it is also quite expensive to train the database managers and users to handle these new upgradations.

Cost of Data Conversion

If the database is changed or modified in some manner, all the data needs to be converted to the new form. This cost may even exceed the database creation and management costs sometimes. This is the reason most organisations prefer to work on their old databases rather than upgrade to new ones.