When not to use a DBMS

When not to use a DBMS

Main inhibitors (costs) of using a DBMS:

High initial investment and possible need for additional hardware.

Overhead for providing generality, security, concurrency control, recovery, and integrity functions.

When a DBMS may be unnecessary:

If the database and applications are simple, well defined, and not expected to change.

If there are stringent real-time requirements that may not be met because of DBMS overhead.

If access to data by multiple users is not required.

When no DBMS may suffice:

If the database system is not able to handle the complexity of data because of modeling limitations

If the database users need special operations not supported by the DBMS.