Unit 614: Database Management Systems and Big Data Technologies

1. Introduction to Database Management Systems

• Definition and purpose of DBMS
• Importance of DBMS in modern information systems
• Basic concepts: data, database, DBMS software
• Components of DBMS: DBMS engine, database schema, query processor, transaction manager
• Types of DBMS (brief overview)

2. Relational Database Model

• Fundamentals of the relational model
• Terminology: tables (relations), rows (tuples), columns (attributes)
• Keys: primary keys, foreign keys, candidate keys
• Relationships: one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many
• Normalization techniques:
  • Purpose of normalization
  • Normal forms (1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF)
  • Denormalization considerations

3. SQL Fundamentals

• Introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Data Definition Language (DDL): CREATE, ALTER, DROP
• Data Manipulation Language (DML): SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
• Data Control Language (DCL): GRANT, REVOKE (briefly)
• Query basics: filtering, sorting, joining tables
• Aggregate functions and grouping data

4. Database Design and Modeling

• Importance of database design
• Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERD): entities, attributes, relationships
• Mapping ERD to relational schema
• Use of data modeling tools (e.g., ERwin, MySQL Workbench)
• Best practices for efficient and scalable database structures

5. Database Security and Integrity

• Database security principles
• Access control models: discretionary, mandatory, role-based
• Authentication and authorization mechanisms
• Encryption techniques for data protection
• Data integrity enforcement:
  • Constraints (primary key, foreign key, unique, check)
  • Triggers
  • Transaction management fundamentals

6. Indexing and Query Optimization

• Purpose and types of indexing:
  • B-tree, Hash indexes
• Query execution plans
• Query optimization techniques
• Performance tuning strategies
• Understanding and analyzing database profiler tools

7. Transaction Management and Concurrency Control

• Definition of a database transaction
• ACID properties: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
• Isolation levels and their impact
• Concurrency control mechanisms:
  • Locking strategies (pessimistic and optimistic)
  • Deadlock detection and resolution
• Handling data consistency in multi-user environments

8. Database Connectivity and Application Development

• Database connectivity concepts
• Connecting to databases using programming languages (Java JDBC, Python DB-API)
• Implementing CRUD operations programmatically
• Managing database transactions within applications
• Error handling and resource management

9. NoSQL Databases

• Introduction to NoSQL and its emergence
• Types of NoSQL databases:
  • Document-oriented (e.g., MongoDB)
  • Key-value stores (e.g., Redis)
  • Column-family stores (e.g., Cassandra)
  • Graph databases (e.g., Neo4j)
• Differences between NoSQL and relational databases
• Use cases and scenarios for NoSQL

10. Big Data and Distributed Databases

• Overview of big data concepts
• Distributed database systems and architectures
• Challenges in scalability and data consistency
• Data partitioning and replication strategies
• Parallel processing frameworks
• Technologies overview:
  • Hadoop ecosystem
  • Apache Spark
• Applications in managing and analyzing massive datasets