Embedded database

An embedded database system is a database management system (DBMS) which is tightly integrated with an application software that requires access to stored data, such that the database system is "hidden" from the application’s end-user and requires little or no ongoing maintenance. It is actually a broad technology category that includes

The term embedded database can be confusing because only a small subset of embedded database products are used in real-time embedded systems such as telecommunications switches and consumer electronics devices. (See mobile database for small-footprint databases that could be used on embedded devices.)

Major embedded database products include, in alphabetical order:

Sybase's Advantage Database Server (ADS) is a full-featured embedded database management system. It provides both ISAM and relational data access and is compatible with multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Netware. It is available as a royalty-free local file-server database or a full client-server version. ADS has been around for many years and is highly scalable, with no administration, and has support for a variety of IDEs including .NET Framework (.NET), Object Pascal (Delphi), Visual FoxPro (FoxPro), PHP, Visual Basic (VB), Visual Objects (VO), Vulcan, Clipper, Perl, Java, xHarbour, etc.

Derby is an embeddable SQL engine written entirely in Java. Fully transactional, multi-user with a decent SQL subset, Derby is a mature engine and freely available under the Apache license and is actively maintained. Derby project page. It is also distributed as part of Oracle's Java SE Development Kit (JDK) under the name of Java DB.

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