After initial review of the existing systems, you have determined that the shipp

Question

After initial review of the existing systems, you have determined that the shipping system used by your company is a Cobol program and files stand alone and are not tied to any other department. In a similar fashion, the receiving department is using a program designed and developed in DBase. The management team wants the two systems integrated. Your supervisor has asked you how the use of a database management system will improve the overall processing of the information system within the company. Describe the pros and cons of a file-based verses a server-based solution and what benefits are be gained from using a server-based solution. include the following details: Pros and cons of each solution. The missed opportunity for data sharing using the 2 independent systems. The advantage of using a single database for both shipping and receiving

Explanation / Answer

This is a rather silly naming convention that the question has adopted!

It really depends on what the person who wrote this question decided to define as "file-based" and "server-based".

Reading this rather poorly worded question I get the following impression:

There are two companies (company A and compnay B).

Company A use a legacy system based on COBAL

Company B use a DBase system.

These are separate systems. Thus data transfer between them will be required.

If both applications used the SAME database (on a server). Then this would eliminate the need for "transferring" data between two applications.

Having a single database, means that you can develop as many "Front End" systems as you need. These "clients" then connect to the same database.

These "Front End" systems can be tailored to each business domain/department.

I will refer predominantly to Relational DBMS. In a file system, data is contained in a flattened structure that is often a variable length structure. For example, a shipment received could contain the shipping header (with [Ill abbreviate but you should use proper names] SNO, SNAME, SADDRESS, SHIPPER NO, SHIPPER NAME, etc.) and shipping details (Items shipped, item name, item standard price, shipped quantity, date shipped, date received, who received, etc., and total cost of the shipment. All this might be contained within a single hybrid (variable length) structure. This structure must have integrity with other data within the organization. For example, the Shipper No and Name must be a real shipper, that exists. File systems do not ensure this. IN a file system, the application must ensure that there is integrity between Shipment, Supplier and your company. DBMS ensure integrity. Most DBMSs would split this example into several structures: Shipment, Shipper, Shipment Item, Supplier No, etc., but these structures would be interrelated. -- by the designer who set up the database but once set up would be enforced by the DBMS itself. Besides, DBMSs keep logs to allow you to recover to a particular point, have utilities for fast loading, have a catalog that keeps statistics, has a specific language for access. In general, however, file systems can be faster because they have less overhead. I would also say a database is easier to maintain. There are DBMS statements that allow you to define the database, access it, etc. You can also index a database. For example, we could create a composite index that contained Shipment No, Shipper Name, Item No to allow us to retrieve from all three faster. In file systems, each file is separate. Those are some of the pros and cons of DBMS vs. file systems.

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