In the simplest sense, the database is all of the records and files arranged for a particular purpose. You may have collected your friends or customers' names and addresses on your computer system. Maybe you collect all the letters you wrote and arrange them according to the recipient. You may also have accounts to pay and collect, or a group of files where you collect your financial data, such as your debt and balance of your checkbook. The word processor documents that you organize according to their subjects, in the broadest sense, is a kind of database. Spreadsheet files that you organize according to usage are also a separate type database. All program shortcuts in the Windows Start menu are also a database. It is a database of internet shortcuts arranged in the Favorites folder. If you are very organized, you can manage several hundred spreadsheets or shortcuts using folders and subfolders. When you do this, you become the database administrator. What will you do as the problems you are trying to solve grow? How can you easily collect information about all customers and their orders, while the data is stored in various documents or spreadsheets? How can you keep links between files when new information is entered? How can you be sure that the data is entered correctly? You need to share your information with many people, and what will you do if you don't want two people to try to update the same data at the same time? If you have encountered such difficulties, you need a database management system (DBMS). The purpose of databases is to process large amounts of corporate data. The data are recorded electronically on a regular basis. This information, which is regularly backed up and controlled, is made available to many applications and users. It is one of the most important features of databases to convert large amounts of data into information that is needed quickly and safely.