The Importance of Databases and Database Management Software in Your Development Environment
Information, by a broad definition, is structured, organised and processed information. It gives context to various data and allows effective decision making. For instance, a single consumer’s sale in a particular restaurant is information it becomes information when the company is able to identify which of the least popular or most popular dish is. A business can therefore define information as data that they process, store and utilise. It is also a collection of such data.
But information does not just consist of information systems and physical information. There is also informational equivalent of information systems and physical information. Informational equivalents refer to how information is utilised in the process of conducting a business. An example of an informational equivalent would be Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a great source of information about practically any topic you can imagine.
Wikipedia is an example of informational information systems. When you visit its home page you will find lots of articles about computer systems, electronic mail, operating systems, blogging, etc. On its face, the home page does not give you much information about how the information technology is actually utilised within a business. But what if you were to go inside of the Wikipedia article on ‘operating systems’ for instance?
A quick search of ‘operating systems’ on Google reveals quite a lot. It includes a list of operating systems, virtualisation tools, computer hardware, database management systems, network configuration software, web browser tools, web server software, computer-related resources (e.g. e-mail), office suite, email client, etc. The home page has information on computer systems, but it does not tell you how the information technology is actually used within a business. This lack of information could potentially pose a threat to the success of a business using computer-related technologies, because there are competing strategies from businesses using different information technologies.
Businesses may be using different information technologies, but they are all part of the same system, and therefore the same strategy for success. A company’s information technology strategy is dependent on the strategies of all the other departments that make up the business. These departments include planning, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and business development. None of these sections exists separately without the other, so all of them are part of the same development environment. Database management software, for example, cannot exist without the operating system, the web server, the web browser, the marketing strategy, and so on.
Information technology is the most important part of the development environment for any company, even though many people do not realise this. Wikipedia states that “information systems” is “the basis on which businesses operate and communicate”. So information systems is really just another word for the entire computer-related environment of a business. It’s the backbone. If you want to succeed at using computers, it’s the least you can do to improve your chances of success.