Databases and their real world use examples - eviltoast

I am very curious as to how databases are used in the real world, whether you’re using MySQL and what not, how does it all come together in a real world business? Banking and gaming I know, but is it something that gets stored on data centres and then put into a VM?

I might be overcomplexing this but I understand the good use cases with VMs and containers etc just not with databases.

I’d google, but I’d like a ELI5 due to my smooth brain with these concepts, thank you.

  • expr@programming.devEnglish
    8·
    6 months ago

    Databases aren’t related to VMs or containers.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database does a good job of describing what a database is. That page also has a lot of examples of uses of databases.

    To answer your question about MySQL: in my experience it’s rarely used outside of classrooms or archaic systems. Postgres is a much better general-purpose option for SQL. Sqlite is also nice for different use cases (such as a database on a mobile device).

    • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.meEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      MySQL is unfortunately still rather popular. Loads of PHP based sites like Wikipedia and WordPress are all MySQL still.

      It’s catching up a bit, especially the forks like Percona Server and MariaDB.

      • expr@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Yeah that’s what I was referring to by “archaic”. Pretty much anything using the LAMP stack falls in that category. I don’t generally see new things using it.