The success of many organizations depends upon information stored in database management systems. Given the importance of such systems, it is essential that managers with responsibility for IT understand the underlying database management system (DBMS) principles, are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of existing database technology and of likely future developments in the field. This book explores these areas. Students using this book will already have some knowledge of databases and will have completed an introductory course in database systems. This book supports a course aimed at deepening the students’ understanding of the technologies covered earlier by introducing other conceptual models which have been proposed to tackle deficiencies of the relational model. It also addresses advanced issues faced in database application development and it aims to familiarise students with the current technological developments and trends. The book covers the following areas: Transaction management Concurrency control Recovery Query Optimisation Distributed Management Systems Object-oriented data models Object-relational database management systems Data warehousing