Database Design Describe Factors Factors

Database Design

Describe factors

Factors that affect the performance of a database:

Design, development, and data entry processes

Factors that affect the performance of a database:

Design, development, and data entry processes

One of the most important considerations when designing a database is the likely composition of the user population. Sheer user volume can create more demand for "transactions, more component access, increased CPU [Central Processing Unit] consumption, more network traffic, and additional database access. For example, when the user population doubles, the network and database workload probably double also" (Application performance factors, 2010, MSDN). A database that is not designed to cope with the level of traffic it will experience will be compromised in its functionality. Also, as more individuals use computers who may not be fluent in using technology to search bodies of information, the value of indexing for easier search-ability becomes a critical factor in improving the utility of the database design and its speed. "Newly added cross-application interfaces and their associated transaction coordination may create unnoticed resource consumption or blockage" because of the greater information they can retrieve (Application performance factors, 2010, MSDN). Ubiquity of computer use within an organization also makes for a higher level of workflow at certain peak hours: Workflow is a "combination of online transactions, batch jobs, ad hoc queries, data warehousing analysis, and system commands directed through the system at any given time" and raises contention for resources (Mullins 2008).

Search transactions of all kinds are becoming more complex in nature. For example, when searching a database of a webpage, "table layouts and other complex HTML can cause a perceived wait on the client after the files are transmitted and the browser determines how to render the page. Simple pages render more quickly….More images require more downloading from the server, lengthening the time it takes for a Web page to complete rendering. The size of each image file is also a factor affecting performance" (Factors, 2010, Dev2Dev). The type of content stored in the database will thus also impact the database design and method of user retrieval: whether it is purely numeric, image and text-based (as on a webpage), whether it contains whole documents, or if it is bibliographic in nature (i.e., it provides information about content such as journal articles, but not the articles themselves).

Content will determine how users search the information. For example, a straightforward database of customer names for a company is searched with relative simplicity. The names may be retrieved according to beginning letters or other important data (such as item purchased). But for a database of full-text magazine articles, the user will need to search according to name, title, publication, and keywords, among other features. The database will not be able to perform adequately without such usability factors. Even if a database is 'fast' in terms of how it returns queries, the queries must be of use to the searcher.