This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Summary
You have spent this hour taking a look at a number of transactions that utilize databases in a variety of ways.
The Internet examples of purchasing a book from Amazon.com and downloading a file from Kazaa.com were, by the very nature of the transaction, database intensive. In fact, since the Internet is only a digital interaction, it must be database intensive. When you compare the Net to walking into a brick-and-mortar store where you are surrounded by a three-dimensional store with aisles, shelves, and products that you can see, touch, try on, and listen to, the Net has to have a more extensive relational database for its products just to compete! The amount of data that it can lead you to and present to you is a key determinant in the online store's success in completing the sales interaction.
The everyday brick-and-mortar transactions you reviewed—getting a prescription filled and using an ATM—were also database intensive. You evaluated each transaction, much like peeling an onion, one layer at a time. Each successive layer had some similar database requirements and some that were unique to their layer within the supply chain.
Finally, you looked at a few examples of activities that you've done for years without even realizing that a database was being used—using a phone book and looking something up in the dictionary.
Hopefully, now that you've finished your look around at some common "transactions," you have a better appreciation for how extensively you use databases.