Database basics: from text files to analytical relational databases

Written by Adrian Bridgwater

If you were to say the words Oracle, Sybase ASE, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and perhaps My SQL to a technologist, then there should only be one word in reply - ‘database’. If you allow two words, then you should expect ‘relational database’ and if you allow four, then listen out for ‘relational database management system’. But what do these systems do? What makes a database ‘relational’ per se? How do new analytic functions in these systems help power business? And how should your business be harnessing these functionalities?

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