A centralized database (sometimes abbreviated CDB) is a database that is located, stored, and maintained in a single location. This location is most often a central computer or database system, for example a desktop or server CPU, or a mainframe computer.In most cases, a centralized database would be used by an organization (e.g. a business company) or an institution (e.g. a university.) Users access a centralized database through a computer network which is able to give them access to the central CPU, which in turn maintains to the database itself. Historical context The need for databases rose in the 60's with the invention of direct access storage, which allowed users to directly access records. Previously, computer systems were tape based, meaning records could only be accessed sequentially. Organizations quickly adopted databases for storage and retrieval of data. The traditional approach for storing data was to use a centralized database, and users would query the data from various points over a network. An example for a centralized database could be given with the Australian Department of Defense, which centralized their databases in the mid 1970s. Advantages Centralized databases hold a substantial amount of advantages against other types of databases. Some of them are listed below: Data integrity is maximized and data redundancy is minimized, as the single storing place of all the data also implies that a given set of data only has one primary record. This aids in the maintaining of data as accurate and as consistent as possible and enhances data reliability. Central host computer can be more easily protected from unauthorized access. Generally easier data portability and database administration. Data kept in the same location is easier to be changed, re-organized, mirrored, or analyzed Transactions can more easily comply with the properties of ACID. Disadvantages Centralized databases also have a certain amount of limitations, such as those described below: Access speed is limited by network speed. The central computer is a single point of failure, if the computer experiences downtime, users will not be able to access any data. If there is no fault-tolerant setup and hardware failure occurs, all the data within the database will be lost. If someone accesses the central computer, all of the data can easily be compromised. Difficult to scale as the centralized computer would need to be replaced to scale up. Centralized databases vs. Distributed databases The underlying idea of centralized databases