The limitations of a file based system are as follows:
Separation and isolation of data
In a file-based system, data are isolated in separate files, making it very difficult to access the data that is available. For example, if a university wanted to extract a list of all the applications it received, and wanted to filter out the prospective students who wanted to start in fall 2016 for a marketing campaign. In a file based system the application programmer would first have to create a temporary file for all future student applications, and then run a search for all applicants whose start date was “fall 2016”. The application developer must then match the processing of both files, to ensure that the extracted data is accurate. As tedious and …show more content…
A database is generally used for storing related, structured data in well-defined data formats. This allows DBMS to easily provide a means of storing relational data, in addition to a flexible way of retrieving that data. Databases uses rich query language to retrieve data through controlled access (Davidson, 2015).
Duplication of Data
The duplication of data, or data redundancy is what a file-based system does all so well due to its decentralized approach. This limitation for the file-based system means that duplication of data causes a wastage of storage, which increases cost and loss of data integrity because the data is at that point, no longer consistent (Connolly, 2014).
For example in a file based system, there would be a customer record created each time a repeat customer shops at a grocery store. Therefore you end up having multiple customer records for the same customer.
The solution provided by a DBMS is that it has a centralized data management solution. This means that all files are integrated into one system, allowing data to be shared by multiple applications thus reducing duplication and effectively making data management much more efficient (Davidson, …show more content…
There is no provision for safety, quality control of the data, data recovery in case of a hardware or software failure was either very limited or nonexistent. In addition, it didn’t allow for multiuser access. File-based systems are 1-1 user access relationship, which in majority of circumstances was a blocker (Connolly, 2014).
For example, if a company with 2 locations, one in San Francisco and the other in Japan, and wanted to run annual reports on the profitability per location. In a file based system, the application developer would have to program the application to have these reports available. However when the need changed to having now monthly and year in comparison reports, then the application developer would have to code those new reports per office. This can be a blocker, depending on the urgency of the reporting needs.
Another scenario, is that because only one user can access the data at once, as the company expanded, retrieving data to make time based decisions, were always delayed because they had to literally stand in line to do
Separation and isolation of data
In a file-based system, data are isolated in separate files, making it very difficult to access the data that is available. For example, if a university wanted to extract a list of all the applications it received, and wanted to filter out the prospective students who wanted to start in fall 2016 for a marketing campaign. In a file based system the application programmer would first have to create a temporary file for all future student applications, and then run a search for all applicants whose start date was “fall 2016”. The application developer must then match the processing of both files, to ensure that the extracted data is accurate. As tedious and …show more content…
A database is generally used for storing related, structured data in well-defined data formats. This allows DBMS to easily provide a means of storing relational data, in addition to a flexible way of retrieving that data. Databases uses rich query language to retrieve data through controlled access (Davidson, 2015).
Duplication of Data
The duplication of data, or data redundancy is what a file-based system does all so well due to its decentralized approach. This limitation for the file-based system means that duplication of data causes a wastage of storage, which increases cost and loss of data integrity because the data is at that point, no longer consistent (Connolly, 2014).
For example in a file based system, there would be a customer record created each time a repeat customer shops at a grocery store. Therefore you end up having multiple customer records for the same customer.
The solution provided by a DBMS is that it has a centralized data management solution. This means that all files are integrated into one system, allowing data to be shared by multiple applications thus reducing duplication and effectively making data management much more efficient (Davidson, …show more content…
There is no provision for safety, quality control of the data, data recovery in case of a hardware or software failure was either very limited or nonexistent. In addition, it didn’t allow for multiuser access. File-based systems are 1-1 user access relationship, which in majority of circumstances was a blocker (Connolly, 2014).
For example, if a company with 2 locations, one in San Francisco and the other in Japan, and wanted to run annual reports on the profitability per location. In a file based system, the application developer would have to program the application to have these reports available. However when the need changed to having now monthly and year in comparison reports, then the application developer would have to code those new reports per office. This can be a blocker, depending on the urgency of the reporting needs.
Another scenario, is that because only one user can access the data at once, as the company expanded, retrieving data to make time based decisions, were always delayed because they had to literally stand in line to do