Software Engineering on the loose

If people hear the word “database” they immediately think about large scale systems, server rooms, millions of rows of data, multiple tables and so on. The fact is, databases are somewhat like that.

Currently we are witnessing increasing demands for mobile computing (wireless, mobile). The rapid growth of mobile phones, PDAs, laptops means more people working on the road, more people working from home. Sooner or later, users would like to have any data, accessable at anytime and anywhere (especially mission-critical data). This is where mobile databases come into the picture. Bare in mind that businesses face a lot of problems trying to implement mobile databases which include: privacy, security and costs.

A database that is portable and physically separate from the corporate databse server but is capable of communicating with that server from remote sites allowing the sharing of corporate data.

The components of the mobile database environment include:

• corporate database server and DBMS that manages and stores the corporate data and provides corporate applications;
• remote database and DBMS taht manages and stores the mobile data and provides movile applications;
• mobile database platform that includes laptop, PDA, or other internet access devices;
• two-way communication links between the corporate and mobile DBMS.

Depending on the requirements of the mobile applications, the user of the device might log on to the corporate database and work with data there or download the necessary data onto the device that he is using. In this case the data synchronisation will take place later.
The mobile database can either do short periodic connections to the corporate database (e.g. while downloading data) or have an ongoing direct communication.

The additional functionality required of the mobile DBMSs include:

• communicate with the centralised database server through modes such as wireless or Internet access;
• replicate data on the centralised database server and mobile device;
• synchronise data on the centralised database server and mobile device;
• capture data from various sources such as Internet;
• manage data on the mobile device;
• analyse data on a mobile device;
• create customised mobile applications.

My opinion is that mobile databases will evolve as there is a higher and higher increase for mobile access. The only problem that I feel with this method is the privacy of the corporate data. Sending critical information and data about an organisation through databases might hold some risks.

[Ref: Thomas Connolly & Carolyn Begg: Database Systems: A practical approach to design, implementation and Management)