Standalone Database Application
A standalone database is designed to operate on a single computer. A traditional standalone system can offer many benefits over distributed systems. Specifically standalone type systems often offer reduced storage costs, as they can leverage the resources on your existing desktop PC. And if you need more storage, you simply need to plug in a larger hard drive, an inexpensive one-time cost. To improve performance, you can also add additional memory to your system. And longer term you can migrate your database to a newer computer system. Unlike remote client server databases, database clusters or cloud-based databases, there are also no bandwidth charges. And since data is only stored on a single computer, a standalone system may offer increased data security.
Creating a Standalone Database Without Coding
While you can use various commercial and open-source systems like Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Microsoft Access and NoSQL MongoDB to setup a standalone database, or you can program your own custom database from scratch, this task can become a very time consuming and labor-intensive process. Also, many of these systems require large amounts of memory and processing power to work smoothly and efficiently, not to mention the needed programming expertise. Further, installing these systems can require a variety of drivers, connection pools and configuration files. Instead of using these more complex systems, an off the shelf integrated system can safe you time and money.
Tracker Ten is an excellent example of a standalone database application, that can save you numerous headaches! It’s designed around a simple WinForms interface (programming in C#), that does not require any special computer knowledge to learn. Further, it can be installed directly onto your computer, via a single installer. Tracker Ten is a file-based system, meaning that you can create and manage multiple independent files. And since we offer a variety of versions, there is a good chance we can offer an out of the box product that will suit your application. And if you still need something different, please contact us for quote on a custom version.
Air Gap your database for increased security
Air gapping is probably the easiest way for you to make your database completely secure. Air gapping in cyber-security simply refers to keeping your computer off the internet. If your computer does not have an internet connection, there is no way for a malicious hacker to access it remotely. Accordingly, if you have your data stored on a standalone air gapped computer, it will be safe from hackers on the internet.
Stand Alone Database Migration Methods
Even if your database is on a standalone computer, you can still move data to and from it. Most databases systems offer data migration assistants and tools. These tools can take outside data and convert it to native formats, or the tools can take native data and convert it a more portable format.
When migrating a database, you need to be aware of the database “schema”. The schema is simply a definition of the structure of the information stored in a database. Some database systems allow you to import and export the schema, in addition to the actual database data. In other systems you will need to take the data in the source schema and convert it into the schema of the destination.
Whether you are importing or exporting, you need to be aware that you’re moving a snapshot of the data at the time of the operation. If the data continues to change in the source or destination, data in both systems will start to diverge. Also, before you can perform import and export operations you may need to take a source or destination database offline, and possibly even detach it so it’s completely inaccessible. Therefore, you may need to plan your migration during non regular business hours.
When you select a standalone database system, you should make sure that it offers import and export features. If for whatever reason you decide to move away from your standalone database, with export features you will be able to easily move your data to a different type of database. Alternatively, you can also move data from another type of database into a standalone database if it has import features.
Our Tracker Ten software features a variety of import and export features. While you cannot import a schema directly into Tracker Ten, we do have a visual drag and drop display where you can easily assign input data columns to Tracker Ten fields. If you need to migrate your data to or from Tracker Ten, please contact us if you need assistance.
Before you perform any import operation, you should make a backup of your existing database. In case of errors or mistakes you will want to rollback to your earlier database version (i.e., the version of your database before you attempted to import data).
Stand Alone Database Instance with Custom Fields
By creating your own stand-alone database, you can also easily customize fields to suit your exact needs. With a shared distributed database system (or a multi-tenant system), you may not be able to perform full customization, as the fields need to setup for multiple users with different needs. In short, the design and technical architecture of these types of systems is not always amendable to customization.
But in a stand-alone database you are free to set up fields to suit your individual application requirements. In our Tracker Ten system field names and data formats can be changed simply by double clicking the field label. And you can create multiple database files (or instances), each of which can be setup differently, and which can be kept completely isolated from one another. This means that Tracker can support multiple separate schemas out of the box.
Single Database Microservices
Today’s modern computer systems often rely on microservices. Microservices simply handle a specialized operation required by a larger application. These systems may sometimes require their own internal databases. Since other parts of the larger application do not need to know about these databases, Microservices will also often use standalone databases.
