Why Relational Databases Help You Make the Most of your Data
We often hear the word “data” and understand that it means a collection of facts. But, more often than not, we lack the skills and tools needed to make the most of it.
Flat files are a fine way to house data, but not necessarily a good place to analyze it. Relational databases are more useful in providing a means to connect your data and draw many conclusions from it. Popular examples include MySQL, Oracle Database and IBM DB2.
There are many benefits to utilizing rational databases. Here, we discuss the top two.
1: Draw conclusions from relationships
“The primary benefit of the relational database approach is the ability to create meaningful information by joining the tables,” according to IBM. “Joining tables allows you to understand the relationships between the data, or how the tables connect.”
2: Limit redundancy
Fields like “customer ID” and “product name” maybe appear in more than one flat file. For example, the same product may be sold at various stores with their one flat files containing purchase information. Relational databases allow you to join data using a common element in various flat files to reduce redundancy.
Imagine you run a chain of supermarkets, and you want to want to understand the relationships between your products, customers and performance across all stores. You have flat files containing data with product data, one with customer data and one with purchase data for each store. By using a relational database, you can join flat files and aggregate data across stores to draw overall relationships across the data, as well as segmented data by region, product type, and more.
For example, you may learn that your stores in South Florida have a higher CDI for pineapples than the total market. By increasing supply of pineapples to these stores, you may increase your revenue. In contrast, stores in North Florida may under index in CDI for pineapples. In this case, you could consider limiting supply of pineapples to these stores to reduce costs.
All in all, relational databases are a viable tool for understanding your data better and, consequently, improving business results.