Relational Model of Shared Data Banks

Abstract
How does one decide best practice for a database management design? Who has used mathematics and science as a basis to assist organizations with a baseline relational model for database management? Well for over the last forty years credit has been given to entrepreneur Edgar F. Codd. The evolution of relational databases remain ever changing, however the foundation laid by Cobb remains best practice for the vast majority of organizations. Simple principles defined in his writing “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks” exhibits pros and cons in comparison to other databases. Although databases range in size, durability, and ease all plays a significant role in an organization growth, success, and failure.
Relational Model of Shared Data Banks
The paper “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks”, written by E. F. Codd explains the advantages of a relational database model primarily in comparison to the tree-structure and network model. The author points out the importance of derivability, redundancy and consistency of relations within the relational model versus other prototypes. One of Cobb’s example cites, “The network model, on the other hand, has spawned a number of confusions, not the least of which is mistaking the derivation of connection for the derivation of relations” (Cobb, 1970, p. 377). Cobb’s overall goal is to make sure readers see how effective and how successful an organization could be with the use of the relational model.
Cobb provides and in-depth explanations as to how indexing data provides for better query and updating performance, yet the downside is the lack of performance with the addition or removal of data. Moreover, depending on the application, the properties of each varies from having the option to index all the attributes or when dealing with files one may choose not to index or only index the primary key. However, when using indexing for the purpose of a performance upgrade its imperative to know that program instability may results upon the removal of the chain name. Throughout the writing Cobb systematically explained that design of relational models come in many forms and fashion, but at the very least should have a primary key. The primary key must not be redundant and thereby capable of being uniquely identified as a cross-reference of elements within the same relation or elements in other relations. As one might note a relation may very well contain more than one primary key, yet only one is to be designated as such.
Various parts of the paper were dry and at times scientifically and mathematically difficult to digest. In fact, repetitive sentence and paragraph reading was the norm for the majority of the read. In contrast, the paper as a whole was overwhelmingly rich in context in the sense of exposing advantages and disadvantages of the different models. The researching efforts of Cobb’s relational model is nothing short of extraordinary.

Works Cited
Codd, E. F. (1970, June). A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks. Communications of the ACM, 13(6), 377-387.