Introduction
Every large corporation deals with massive amounts of data, and selecting a suitable database for the website, web application, or mobile application is essential to any business’s success nowadays. For every software application, databases are the essential back-end features for collecting, storing, and organizing data. Companies are collecting more and more data, but to use it for their competitive advantage, this data must be stored and organized properly.
This is where the use of Database Management Systems (DBMS) comes into play. There are a host of useful DBMS out there, but arguably MySQL is the most popular and commonly utilized owing to its ease of access and invaluable security features. Let’s dig deeper to find out what makes MySQL so useful and preferable for back-end developers and database administrators.
1) Availability
Data availability is achieved when an organization ensures that all of its business-related data is instantaneously available to the customers. A delay in response from the database in fetching the data can yield frustration and dissatisfaction among the users.One of the core features of MySQL is the 24/7 high availability of data. In case of a failure, this famed DBMS ensures data availability via its multiple cluster servers and data replication configurations. It also supports various backup strategies to prevent data loss in case of a catastrophic system crash.
2) Data Encryption
Protecting the database against attackers, outsiders, and even unauthorized employees is essential for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of the data. Defending against perpetrators exploiting potential weaknesses is the number one priority of database management systems. MySQL offers protection via data encryption, data masking, authentication plugins, and additional layers of security. In this way, this database management system guarantees data security.
3) Fast Speed
MySQL is known for processing data at a lightning-fast speed. In contrast to conventional databases, MySQL responds to requests faster, resulting in quicker data manipulation. It is pertinent to mention, however, that in an overall comparison of databases, MongoDB is faster than MySQL.
4) Scalability
With the ever-increasing amount of data needed to be stored, databases must be able to scale up to accommodate the data. MySQL enables this feature via replication, clustering, and shredding to support large databases.
5) Lower Ownership Cost
If you are wondering about migrating your existing database apps to the MySQL platform, you don’t need to worry about the cost. MySQL DBMS allows cost-saving features to help in the transition process. This is yet another capability of this database management system that makes it highly desirable.
6) Internationalization
To facilitate non-English speaking users, it comes with built-in extensive support for foreign character sets, and collations, making it an in-demand choice for multi-lingual apps.
7) Open Source
Like MongoDB, MySQL is also open source, making it free to use, modify and distribute for the general public.
Conclusion
MySQL is one of the most widely used databases owing to its useful features like scaling, lower ownership cost, data security, and comparatively faster speed. This blog underscored seven useful capabilities of this renowned database management system that make MySQL the go-to choice.
