What is a Database?

Databases are designed to offer an organized mechanism for storing, managing and retrieving information. They do so through the use of tables. If you’re familiar with spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel, you’re probably already accustomed to storing data in tabular form. It’s not much of a stretch to make the leap from spreadsheets to databases. Databases should be used to:

• Help students complete research and look for data among many different organizations.
• Learn invaluable lessons in study skills and organization by relating to the way databases handle information.
• Teach students how data can be organized to show relationships to small pieces of information.
• Question students and encourage them to find information to support their position
• Practice research skills by locating public databases for analysis.

The concept of a database is believed to have been developed in the 1960s. The modern technology-driven software database application revolutionized business and marketing in the late 1990s and into the 21st century.

The evolution of database applications beginning in the late 1990s paved the way for rampant growth of business and marketing processes like customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Companies now have the technological capabilities to collect, analyze and use data and information on customers.