Database Management Systems (DBMSs) are a ubiquitous and critical component of modern computing, and the result of decades of research and development in both academia and industry. Architecture of a Database System presents an architectural discussion of DBMS design principles, including process models, parallel architecture, storage system design, transaction system implementation, query processor and optimizer architectures, and typical shared components and utilities. Successful commercial and open-source systems are used as points of reference, particularly when multiple alternative designs have been adopted by different groups.

Historically, DBMSs were among the earliest multi-user server systems to be developed, and thus pioneered many systems design techniques for scalability and reliability now in use in many other contexts. While many of the algorithms and abstractions used by a DBMS are textbook material, Architecture of a Database System addresses the systems design issues that make a DBMS work.

It is an invaluable reference for database researchers and practitioners and for those in other areas of computing interested in the systems design techniques for scalability and reliability that originated in DBMS research and development.