Accounting Homework Help

Reply of at least 150 words on this post

Each reply must incorporate at least 1 scholarly citation in the current APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include the textbook, the Bible, etc

  In the world of computer information systems, databases are a pretty important part. To be exact, relational databases are covered in our textbook and what we dive into. As defined in our textbook, relational databases are often perceived as a collection of tables (Gelinas et al, 2018). To further that definition, relational databases are what you would see in excel, the huge amounts of data stored in a group of columns, rows, cells, and tables. In the article I chose to review and summarize, it compares these relational databases to non-relational databases. “A non-relational database is any database that does not use the tabular schema of rows and columns like relational databases” (“What’s the difference, n.d.). These are where data is stored in the form of text, or other data that does not need to be separated by rows, columns, cells, etc. Non-relational databases are also known as NoSQL databases, or Not Only SQL; where relational data bases only use SQL, non-relational databases can use other query language (“What’s the difference”, n.d.).

     In this article that compares relational and non-relational, the authors define a relational database as “when a set of data items are organized with the help of formally described tables the database formed” (Jatan et al, pg.1). The articles states that rational databases are easily accessed, as well as easily created and extended (Jatan et al, pg. 1). The authors then define the comparison to relational as, “when traditional tables are not used to store data” (Jatan et al, pg. 1). The article then breaks down into parts explaining the details of both relational and non-relational databases. First, an overview of relational database model; this portion gives some background of relational data as well as benefits to this database. This form of storing data was created by E.F Codd in 1970; originally it was based upon relational calculus and relational algebra and is subdivided into elements such as clauses, predicates, queries and statements (Jatan et al, pg. 2). Next in going into the details of relational data, the articles show the tools. “The two most extensively used relational databases are MySQL and Oracle” (Jatan et al, pg. 2). It explains that MySQL is more popular with websites and is a lightweight system that is extremely fast. However, Oracle is used in large database situations such as banking, insurance, ERP and finance companies (Jatan et al, pg.2). The article does a deep dive of then explained and comparing the two systems in terms of how they align with different data and situations. Last in discussing relational database, the article explains what they lack. One of the points the article states is when the amount of data needed to store is too large, the database has to be partitioned across multiple services which poses several problems because joining tables in distributed servers is very difficult (Jatan et al, pg. 3). After evaluating all the details of relational databases, one could see how there is a need for another way to store and access large data sets in a better way, which leads the article to explain non-relational databases.

     The most important, obvious difference between relational and non-relational databases is that non-relational simply does not use relations, or tables, to store the data and it doesn’t use SQL as its query language (Jatan et al, pg.3). The article then proceeds to explain the different non-relational databases there are, such as: document store, graph database, column-oriented databases, object-oriented databases, grid and cloud databases, XML databases, multidimensional databases, multivalue databases, and multimodal databases. All of these are non-relational databases that have different qualities to offer based on need. For example, the column-oriented databases store their data in the form of strictly columns. “It serializes all the values of on column together and so on; column-oriented databases are comparatively efficient than row oriented one’s when new values for a column are entered for all rows at once as column data can be written efficiently and replace old data without altering any other columns for the rows” (Jatan et al, pg.3). Finally, like the relational databases, the article writes a portion stating the disadvantages to NOSQL. One of the disadvantages stated is that most non-relational databases are open-source software which is appreciated, though it compromises in reliability as no person is responsible in times of failures (Jatan et al, pg.4). The other disadvantages include software and systematic issues.

     Overall, the article in the scholarly journal conclude with a visual table showing what results the authors came up with based on their discussion of the two databases. The results conclude that non-relational databases have a high data throughput, whereas relational has a low data throughput (Jatan et al, pg. 5). Beyond that, they also conclude that non-relational databases provide BASE properties, though relational databases provide ACID properties (Jatan et al, pg. 5). Furthermore, non-relational databases show that performance can be enhanced by caching data into system memory, whereas for relational databases caching has to be done with the help of special infrastructure (Jatan et al, pg. 5). Overall, the article clearly shows that there is not a right or wrong database style to go with, as shown there are multiple different options for compiling data.

     From a biblical perspective, I don’t see that I could exactly tie relational data to God’s word, though I can tie the world of business and computers to Him. The internet and technology have given us access to more knowledge and accessibility than we could ever imagine, and it is only growing more and more. However, as both a Christian and an accountant, I believe it is important to remember whose we are always, even in our work. Psalm 119:37 says, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways”. This verse screams that God knows we are going to have challenges in our life like the internet and technology, but in the end, it is only Him and myself, which is all that matters.