A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model. The model that is most commonly used today is the relational model.

Other models such as the hierarchical model and the network model use a more explicit representation of relationships. Depending on the intended use, there are a number of database architectures in use. Many databases use a combination of strategies.

On-line Transaction Processing systems (OLTP) often use a row-oriented datastore architecture, while data-warehouse and other retrieval-focused applications like Google's BigTable, or bibliographic database (library catalogue) systems may use a Column-oriented DBMS architecture. Document-Oriented, XML, knowledgebases, as well as frame databases and RDF-stores (aka triple-stores), may also use a combination of these architectures in their implementation.

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