The management of Colonial Adventure Tours wants to upgrade its database and wants you to help select a different DBMS. To help management, they would like you to complete the following exercises. You do not use the Colonial Adventure Tours database for any of these exercises.
1. Many computer magazines and Web sites present comparisons of several DBMSs. Find one such DBMS comparison and compare the functions in this chapter to the listed features and functions in the comparison. Which functions from this chapter are included in the comparison? Which functions are missing from the comparison? What additional functions are included in the comparison? Which DBMS would you recommend for Colonial Adventure Tours? Justify your recommendation.
2. Use computer magazines and/or the Internet to investigate one of these DBMSs: DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, or Sybase. Prepare a report that explains how that DBMS handles the following DBMS functions: concurrent update, data recovery, and security. (For concurrent update, you might need to review the concurrency control features of the DBMS.) Could Colonial Adventure Tours upgrade to the DBMS that you researched? Why or why not?