Describing the technology that makes it possible to design mission-critical database applications using inexpensive hardware and software database technology, this book provides the fundamental knowledge and design skills needed to effectively employ database software to solve business problems. It also examines distributed client/server environments and the application configurations that can be oriented in a multisystem environment. Introduces the capabilities of Structured Query Language (SQL), and covers the common pitfalls that new users might not otherwise discover from reading software documentation.