Definition

relational database management system (RDBMS)

A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a program that lets you create, update, and administer a relational database. Most commercial RDBMS's use the Structured Query Language (SQL) to access the database, although SQL was invented after the development of the relational model and is not necessary for its use.

The leading RDBMS products are Oracle, IBM's DB2 and Microsoft's SQL Server. Despite repeated challenges by competing technologies, as well as the claim by some experts that no current RDBMS has fully implemented relational principles, the majority of new corporate databases are still being created and managed with an RDBMS.

Contributor(s): Shawn Chin and Orjan Timan
This was last updated in November 2005
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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