Purpose of Database System/Drawbacks of using file systems

In the early days, database applications were built on top of file systems
Drawbacks of using file systems to store data:
Data redundancy and inconsistency.
Multiple file formats, duplication of information in different file Difficulty in accessing data
Need to write a new program to carry out each new task
Data isolation — multiple files and formats
Integrity problems
Integrity constraints (e.g. account balance > 0) become part of program code
Hard to add new constraints or change exist
Atomicity of updates
Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with partial updates carried out
E.g. transfer of funds from one account to another should either complete or not happen at all
Concurrent access by multiple users
Concurrent accessed needed for performance
Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies
E.g. two people reading a balance and updating it at the same time
Security problems
Database systems offer solutions to all the above problems