Database Research: Achievements and Opportunities into the 21st Century

Abstract

Database Research: Achievements and Opportunities Into the 21st Century Avi Silberschatz, Mike Stonebraker, Jeff Ullman, editors Report of an NSF Workshop on the Future of Database Systems Research, May 26{27, 1995 1 1 Introduction In February of 1990, a group of database researchers met to examine the prospects for future database research efforts. The resulting report (Silberschatz et al. [1990]) was instrumental in bringing to the public's attention both the significance of prior database research and the number of challenging and important problems that lay ahead. We shall not repeat here the major points made in that report concerning the historical development of relational database systems and transaction management. Rather the reader is encouraged to consult either that report or an on-line document (Gray each of which discusses these and other historical achievements of database research. In May of 1995, a second workshop was convened to consider anew the prospects for database research, and this paper reports on our findings. 2 The following points summarize the conclusions of this forum. The database research community plays a foundational role in creating the technological infrastructure from which database advancements evolve. Next-generation database applications enabled by the explosion of digitized information over the last five years will require the solution to significant new research problems. These problems are grouped in this report into the following broad areas: support for multimedia objects, distribution of information, new database applications, workflow and transaction management, and ease of database management and use. A new research mandate for the database community is provided by the technology developments of the recent past -- the explosions in hardware capability, hardware capacity, and communication (including the internet or "web" and mobile comm There is a heightened need for governmental and industrial support of basic data