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A database consists of several components. Each component plays an important role in the database system environment.
The major components of database are as follows:
Data
It is raw numbers, characters or facts represented by value. Most of the organisations generate, store and process large amount of data. The data acts as a bridge between the hardware and the software. Data may be of different types such as User data, Metadata and Application Metadata.
Software
It is a set of programs that lies between the stored data and the users of database. It is used to control and manage the overall computerised database. It uses different types of software such as MySQL, Oracle etc.
Hardware
It is the physical aspect of computer, telecommunication and database, which consists of the secondary storage devices such as magnetic disks, optical discs etc., on which data is stored.
Users
It is the person, who needs information from the database to carry out its primary business responsibilities.
The various types of users which can access the database system are as follows:
Database Administrator (DBA)
A person, who is responsible for managing or establishing policies for the maintenance and handling the overall database management system is called DBA.
Application Programmers
The people, who write application programs in programming languages to interact and manipulate the database are called application programmers.
End-user
A person, who interacts with the database system to perform different operations on the database like inserting, deleting etc., through menus or forms.