Costs & Risks of Database Approach:

The database approach emphasizes data integration and sharing across organizations. As with any business decision, the database approach entails some additional costs and risks that must be recognized and managed when implementing this approach. Mentionable some costs & risks of database approach are as follows;

  1. New Specialized Personnel: Frequently, organizations that adopt the database approach need to hire or train individuals to design & implement databases, provide database administration services and manage a staff of new people, further, because of the rapid changes in technology these new people will have to be retrained or upgraded on a regular basis.
  2. Installation & Management Costs and complexity: A multi-user database management system is a large and complex suite of software that has a high initial cost, requires a staff of trained personnel to install and operate, and also has substantial annual maintenance & support costs. Installing such a system may also require upgrades to the hardware and data communications system in the organization.
  3. Conversion Costs: The cost of converting the traditional file processing systems to modern database technology: measured in terms of money, time, and organizational commitment.
  4. Need for explicit Backup & Recovery: A shared corporate database must be accurate and available at all times. These require that comprehensive procedures be developed and used for providing backup copies of data and for restoring a database when damage occurs.
  5. Organizational Conflict: A shared database requires a consensus on data definitions and ownership as well as responsibilities for accurate data maintenance. Experience has shown that conflicts on data definitions, data formats, and coding, rights to update shared data are frequent and often difficult to resolve.

Reference:

  1. Modern Database management, Written by Fred R.Mc Fadden & others (page ―20-33)
  1. Introduction to Database Management System, Written By ISRD Group ( page – 3)