Happy Homes Database System - Coursework Example

? Happy Homes Database System Database security The security of a database system should be up to The data held by a database is ofgreat importance and loss or damage to that data could result into great consequences to the organization. Happy Homes Ltd has a database for the storage, access, and management of information required for its normal operations. To enhance the security of the database, several key concepts have to be looked at and properly set. This enhances maximum operation and security of the database. First, the issue of access control should take center stage while discussing the security concepts. This allows or revokes access to the database for authorized users only. It also restricts on the actions that authorized users are allowed to perform on the database. This is the main method of securing data in a database. Access to the database mostly requires correct username and a password which is assigned by the database administrator. The database administrator identifies legitimate users of the database and assigns each a passwords that they use to directly or indirectly access the database for manipulation, retrieval or updating of the data. The second issue that is concerned with database security is database vulnerabilities. Threats from a variety of sources such as internet and users should be identified and minimized to reduce the chances of the database security being breached. This could be done through use of firewalls to manage the network traffic in the organization and also, through controlled access to the database for the users. Updates and patches to the database management system should be routinely done to help enhance the security of the database. The database administrator should be updated on the current trends of security so that he/she can mend the database where such vulnerabilities occur. The third aspect on database security is auditing. This is a process whereby the database administrator monitors database access and activities of the users. It helps to indicate who access the database and what actions or tasks were performed by the user. This assists in checking for security breaches in the database. Lastly, applications accessing the database should be closely monitored and assessed so as not to compromise the security of the database. For instance, in the case of Happy Homes Ltd, applications could be used to record the sales of houses. This and many others are potential sources of database threats as they may leave vulnerabilities in the database. The database administrator should be in a position to determine the permissions of the applications so that he/she can regulate them (Alfred Basta, 2011). Distributed Database Management System This database system connects a variety of databases in various regions over a network and operates in a way that the users are not aware of the distributed databases. In the case of Happy Homes Ltd, the databases could be located in various regions and then have a central server that synchronizes the operations of the whole system. Each region’s database handles information related to that region and when there is need, it shares its resources with other database system s in other regions. A sample diagram for the Happy Homes Ltd could be defined as: In each region, a server helps in the management of the regional system. It also helps in communication among the various regional offices and to the main server. Data is stored in the database at a given region. A backup copy of these data is stored in the main database system at the organization headquarters. Storage of data in these areas helps in easier and quicker access to the data. Centralizing the data in one area reduces the system performance as compared to distributed system. Maintenance and administration of the distributed system is also easy as it can be done as per region. This makes it easier for database administrators since incase repairs are going on in one area other regions are not affected by the repairs. Troubleshooting and handling of problems is also easy since the system is not centralized (Ray, 2009). The main servers and database systems can also be used to serve a region in case the system in that region is having problems. They also help in backups and synchronization of the whole system. Web Based Database Management System. In case Happy Homes Ltd decides to implement a web based database system, it could be implemented as shown below. Clients Web Browsers Web Servers Database Management System The web based database system is implemented in three logical tiers. The first one is the clients’ tier where the user browser is used for access to the web servers in the second tier. The web servers have access to the database management system for retrieval, updates, and management of the data. The client can be either a thin client or a fat client. Thin client do not do much processing of the data while fat clients perform rigorous processing of the data. Connections among the three tiers is via the internet which may either be LAN or WAN. For the case of Happy Homes Ltd, the three level tiers could be implemented in a variety of ways. First, several application servers could be established in all the regions and one single database server centrally located. The clients will use their browsers to access the application servers then the database system. This could suffer from several drawbacks such as slow networks due to increased traffic. The second way could be construction of the three level tier architecture in each region and then have all the systems connected over WAN for data sharing and synchronization. Database systems are designed and expected to perform in an efficient and quick manner such that users will not be slowed down while performing their tasks. Several issues affect the performance of a database system. First, the database design affects the overall database system performance. This turns into a serious challenge when there are many users and slow network. The performance of the database is reduced to a crawl due to poor design that failed to consider factors such as number of users, expected number of queries, and the network connection. The second issue affecting database performance is the third party applications running on the database system. This could be application programs assisting the users to query the database or utility programs such as antivirus. When either of these programs takes so many resources in the database system, the overall performance of the database becomes very slow. Lastly, there are hardware and operating system problems. This could either be slow network interface cards, problems with RAM (Random Access Memory) and viruses in the host operating system. These are a great challenge to the performance of the database system. Bottlenecks created in the network connection could also hinder the database performance and tackling all these challenges would lead to a database that performs optimally without much delay noticeable by the users (Abraham Silberschatz, 2010). Database Optimization Optimization helps to improve the performance of a database system. There are various ways of optimizing the performance of a database. Before finding means of database optimizing, facts and statistics have to be collected about the performance of the database. This will help in determining bottlenecks and other issues, which could be slowing down the performance. The process of collecting performance issues for the purpose of optimization is known as profiling the database. Profiling should always come first before optimization can be done. Optimization takes various forms. First, scheduling of tasks such as maintenance helps to keep the database running persistently and responding promptly to user queries. This is because if maintenance and update tasks are running, they take up a lot of memory space and these results in a slow database system. These tasks should be scheduled to be performed at a time when there is limited or no transactions from users so that at peak time the database will be in a good state to perform well. To optimize the physical layout of the database, tables that are heavily accessed should have separate devices or procedures for accessing them. This will ensure that there is a dedicated plan in place for their access instead of struggling to get a chance in the overall database system. This increases the performance of a database significantly as other tasks can be carried out even during peak time since the tables heavily accessed have a dedicated structure in place for their access. Relationships among all the primary and secondary keys defined should be clearly stated. In addition, unique constraints and correct data types should be well defined during the design of the database. This will help in improving the performance of the system since the system will not struggle to look for certain fields as they have already been stated. Finally, for applications and transactions in the database, avoid any transaction or application that takes a lot of time processing. If possible, use short running transactions as they are faster and efficient. Applications that require user input to finalize their transactions in the database should be avoided as they can make the resources of the database system to be scarce making the performance to go down. Accessing items in the database in an organized order could also come in handy when improving the performance of the database. Happy Homes Ltd would require an optimized database so that all the tasks dependent on the database system can be performed without much delay. It also helps to boost the morale of the workers, which in turn leads to greater and better customer relations (Gupta, 2012). Works Cited Abraham Silberschatz, H. F. (2010). Database System Concepts. McGraw-Hill. Alfred Basta, M. Z. (2011). Database Security. Cengage Learning. Gupta, M. (2012, Feb 14). 50 Database Optimization Tips. Retrieved Feb 27, 2013, from http://www.sqlserver-training.com/50-database-optimization-tips/- Ray. (2009). Distributed Database Systems. Pearson Education India. Read More