Database Management System (DBMS) is a software package / system used to facilitate the creation and maintenance of a computerised database.
Typical DBMS functionality:
- Define a particular database in terms of its data types, structures, and constraints.
- Construct / load the initial database contents on secondary storage.
- Manipulating the database:
- Retrieval: querying, generating reports
- Modification: insertions, deletions and updates to content
- Accessing the database through web applications
- Processing and sharing by a set of concurrent users and application programs but keeping all data valid and consistent.
- Protection / security to prevent unauthorised access.
- Active processing to take internal actions on data.
- Presentation and visualisation of data.
- Maintaining the database and associated programs over the lifetime of the database application.