Chapter 17: Databases, Analytics, and Prepping Data for Use with AI

Vocabulary terms covering data management, relational databases, cloud computing models, and various types of data analytics as presented in Chapter 17.

Data

Raw facts, figures, observations, or measurements that have not yet been processed into meaningful information.

Information

Data that has been processed, organized, and presented in a context so that it is useful for decision-making.

Knowledge

The insight derived from experience and expertise; the understanding, experience, insights, and skills gained from information and learning.

Legacy Systems

Older information systems built using outdated technologies that are often difficult to integrate with modern systems and are not aligned with a firm's current business needs.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

A technology that helps users analyze and summarize large amounts of data from multiple perspectives using data cubes.

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Information systems that record, process, and store routine business transactions, such as sales, bank withdrawals, and customer purchases.

Database Management System (DBMS)

Software used to create, store, maintain, and manage databases.

Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)

The most widely used type of DBMS, which stores data in related tables.

Structured Query Language (SQL)

The standard and most widely used language for creating, managing, and querying data in relational database management systems.

Business Intelligence (BI)

The process of collecting, analyzing, and presenting business data to support informed decision-making through reporting, data exploration, and ad hoc queries.

Artificial Intelligence

A class of computer software that seeks to reproduce or mimic human thought, decision-making, or brain functions.

Canned Reports

Predefined reports that provide regular summaries of information in a standard format and are generated automatically.

Database Administrator (DBA)

A person responsible for managing, maintaining, securing, and ensuring the efficient operation of a database.

Table (also called a File)

A collection of related data organized into rows and columns.

Record (also called a Row)

A complete set of related information about one item or person in a table.

Field (also called a Column)

A single piece of information within a record.

Relational Database

A database that stores data in multiple related tables connected through common keys.

Serverless Computing

A cloud computing model where the cloud provider manages infrastructure (servers, storage, scaling) so developers can focus on deploying code.

Transaction

A business event or exchange that can be recorded and tracked, such as a sale, payment, deposit, or withdrawal.

Loyalty Program

A rewards system that encourages repeat purchases and helps businesses collect customer data and understand buying behavior.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A system that helps businesses track, manage, and analyze customer interactions to improve service, sales, and marketing.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

A system that manages the flow of goods, information, and services from suppliers to customers to improve efficiency.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

An enterprise software system that integrates and manages core business functions like HR, inventory, and operations within a single platform.

Analytics

The process of transforming raw data into meaningful information using statistical analysis and predictive models to identify patterns and solve problems.

Descriptive Analytics

A type of analytics that identifies what happened.

Diagnostic Analytics

A type of analytics that identifies why something happened.

Predictive Analytics

A type of analytics that identifies what is likely to happen.

Prescriptive Analytics

A type of analytics that identifies what should be done.

Dashboards

A heads-up display of critical indicators that provides a graphical glance at key performance metrics.

Data Cloud

Refers to a cloud service that provides tools to extract and transform data from disparate sources so that it can be interrogated.

Data Lake

A storage system that holds large volumes of raw, structured, and unstructured data in its original format from multiple sources.

Data Swamp

A poorly managed data lake where data is disorganized, difficult to access, and hard to analyze, making it not useful for decision-making.

Data Mining

The process of using computers to identify hidden patterns in, and to build models from, large datasets.

Machine Learning (ML)

A type of AI often defined as software with the ability to learn or improve accuracy without being explicitly programmed.

Data Warehouse

A collection of databases designed to support decision-making by storing and organizing large amounts of data from different systems.

Data Mart

A smaller, specialized database focused on a specific department, business unit, or problem.

Data Cube

A special database structure used in OLAP that stores data in multiple dimensions for fast analysis.

Primary Key

A unique value in a field that refers to only one record and never occurs in that same field for another record in the table.

Foreign Key

A key that can occur many times over multiple records in a table but relates back to a primary key in another table.