A History of Databases
In Chap. 1 we discussed data as an organisational asset. We saw data, usually in the form of records has been with us since at least ancient Egyptian times. We also so that the big drivers of the need to keep detailed records were trade and taxation. Ele
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A History of Databases
What the reader will learn: • The Origins of databases • Databases of the 1960’s and 1970’s • Current mainstream database technologies—relational versus object orientation • The need for speed in database systems • Distributed databases and the challenges of transaction processing with distributed data
2.1
Introduction
In Chap. 1 we discussed data as an organisational asset. We saw data, usually in the form of records has been with us since at least ancient Egyptian times. We also so that the big drivers of the need to keep detailed records were trade and taxation. Basically you needed to keep track of who owed you how much for what. This meant you not only needed a way of recording it, you also needed a way of retrieving it and updating it. Ultimately this lead to the development of double entry book keeping which emerged in the 13th and 14th centuries. Retrieving data was another issue and in paper based systems indexes were developed to ease and speed this process. Producing reports from data was manual, time consuming and error prone although various types of mechanical calculators were becoming common by the mid nineteenth century to aid the process. Because of the time taken to produce them, major reports were usually published once a month coinciding reconciliation of accounts. An end of year financial position was also produced. On demand reports were unheard of. As a result the end of the month and the end of the year were always extremely busy times in the accounts section of an organisation.
2.2
The Digital Age
The first commercial computer UNIVAC 1 was delivered in 1951 to the US Census Bureau (Fig. 2.1). In 1954 Metropolitan Life became the first financial company to P. Lake, P. Crowther, Concise Guide to Databases, Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-5601-7_2, © Springer-Verlag London 2013
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A History of Databases
Fig. 2.1 UNIVAC 1 (original at http://www. computer-history.info/Page4. dir/pages/Univac.dir/, last accessed 07/08/2013)
purchase one of the machines. This was a significant step forward giving Metropolitan Life a first mover advantage over other insurance companies. The UNIVAC was followed by IBM’s 701 in 1953 and 650 in 1954. At the time it was envisaged by IBM that only 50 machines would be built and installed. By the end of production of the IBM 650 in 1962 nearly 2,000 had been installed. Data could now be processed much faster and with fewer errors compared with manual systems and a greater range of reports which were more up to date could be produced. One unfortunate side effect was regarding things as ‘must be right, it came from the computer’ and conversely ‘I can’t do anything about it, it is on the computer’. Fortunately both attitudes are no longer as prevalent.
2.3
Sequential Systems
Initial computer systems processing data were based on the pre-existing manual systems. These were sequential systems, where individual files were composed of records organised in some predetermined order. Although not a data
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