Technologies we use

Relational Databases

What is a Relational Database?

How does one store and organize sets of data on a computer? The traditional way to store related pieces of data on a computer is via a relational database. A relational database is composed of one or more tables, each with columns, and corresponding fields. Each row is known as a record. For instance, if your columns were First Name, Last Name, and Age, a singular record might be Bob Jones 48.

The quality that these tables contain that makes them “relational” databases is a unique field (or combination of fields) in each, a key, which can then be referenced by another table. One or more records in a table can be related to one or multiple records in other tables, which means we can have various, functional dependencies, classified as one to one, one to many or many to many. By design, tables can easily be searched, organized, and have reports drawn from them. Relational databases uses Structured Query Language (SQL), a standard interface to perform operations and queries on the data within a relational database.

A relational database is able to perform operations like “select” for data retrieval, “project” for identifying data attributes and “join” for combining relations. Using SQL, users can easily create completely new tables from information stored in existing tables.

The benefits of relational databases for businesses

Why would a business use relational databases? Here are some benefits:

Ability to be easily extended

new data can be added to a database without the need for modification of existing records, as long as they follow the same structure.

Flexibility

as there are no limits on the number of rows or columns in a table, together with multiple data requirement capabilities.

Data security

as some data may be blocked for access for different users inside the application.

There are plenty of applications for relational databases in business. Think you could use some? Get in touch with us to start building.

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About MySQL

MySQL is an open source relational database management system (RDBMS). It offers a comprehensive set of features and tools for management and technical support that can help a company get the best out of their relational databases in terms of security, scalability and stability.

The features of MySQL include:

OS/platform independence,
Trigger conditions, that execute automatically, such as INSERT, DELETE,
Stored procedures, so complex SQL statements don’t need to be create every time,
ODBC support.

MySQL benefits

The benefits of this RDBMS in business use-cases include:

on-demand scalability

that allows flexibility and customization, as well as facilitation of management of embedded apps,

high availability

with 24/7 up-time,

high performance

as MySQL is prepared to work with even the most demanding applications with perfect speed and exceptional memory caches,

comprehensive support of transactions for fault-resistant operations

with ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, and Durable) transactions built into the system.

About PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is perhaps the best known of the alternatives to MySQL. PostgreSQL is an object-relational, enterprise class database management system. Its primary features focus on storing data securely and returning said data in response to requests from other applications. It puts emphasis on scalability and extensibility.

PostgreSQL is ACID compliant and fully supports foreign keys, triggers, joins and views. Additionally, it has a large range of native data types and supports storage of binary large objects, including video, sound and pictures, as well as international character sets, multibyte character encodings and Unicode, as well as the option to create your own data types. PostgreSQL also boasts some sophisticated features including Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC), asynchronous replication, point in time recovery, tablespaces, nested transactions, online/hot backups, and a query planner or optimizer.

PostgreSQL benefits

PostgreSQL offers many advantages in business such as:

zero-cost for any number of deployments

no limited-scale licensing agreements to worry about,

flexibility

to do concept research and trial deployments without additional licensing costs,

reliability and stability

that is almost legendary among users - many companies report that they have not witnessed PostgreSQL crash in years,

multi-platform support

as PostgreSQL is available for most flavors of Unix (including MacOS) and Windows 8.0 and above

great performance in high volume environments

as its uses a multiple row data storage strategy (MVCC) that makes PostgreSQL very responsive even in high volume systems,

materialized views

which are views where data gets saved, a query is run in the actual table and it refreshes whenever you tell it to do so,

JSON structures

the ability to use JSON types for data, which are unstructured and flexible - with more meaningful documents as the database can provide validation functions and data constraints.

Examples of use: MySQL and PostgreSQL

Who uses MySQL and PostgreSQL in business? Who are the companies using relational databases? There are plenty of examples of relational databases in the business environment.

MySQL is used by in-demand social media web applications like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. Two of the most famous auction webpages - eBay and Alibaba - rely also on MySQL. This RDBMS is used by Booking.com, a webpage for booking accommodation around the world, video streaming platform Netflix, as well as the most famous online payment system provider PayPal, and WordPress, the online system for managing content. MySQL is a backbone technology in many, many businesses around the world.

PostgreSQL is used by technology giant Apple, as well as well-known communications companies Cisco and Skype. The popular movie database IMDB.com relies on PostgreSQL, along with gaming company MobyGames, and handcrafted goods sales powerhouse Etsy. Universities such as Alabama, Birmingham, California, Berkeley, New South Wales, Oslo, Sydney and more) and US government bodies (Agency for International Development, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Labor, General Services Administration and State Department) rely on PostgreSQL for their operations.

Universities

Government

If you think a relational database might be of use to your business, but are not sure which will be best (PostgreSQL vs MySQL?) and how to go about implementing it, contact us! iRonin has vast experience in working with relational databases and other strategic technologies that we’re just waiting to share in your project.

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