The unstructured approach is for data that are not organized in a manner that is
intelligible to the computer. The unstructured approach applies to images, audio
information, downloads from satellites, and so forth. But far and away, the biggest use of
the unstructured approach is for textual data.
Fig. 8.1.12 shows the evolution of the internal formatting of data.
Fig. 8.1.12 Internal formatting of data architecture.The structured approach implies that the data are organized enough to be able to be
defined to a database management system. Typically, the DBMS has attributes of data,
keys, indexes, and records of data. The “schema” of the data is determined as the data
are loaded. Indeed, the content of the data and its place in the schema dictate where and
how the data are loaded.
Fig. 8.1.13 illustrates data loaded in a structured format.
Chapter 8.1: A Brief History of Data Architecture