13.3 Disadvantages of Using the Traditional ...

The following are the main disadvantages of using the traditional file system to directly support applications:

1.	Poor Performance: The time required to store data in a file could be small, e.g. by appending a new record to the end of the file.

However, updating and querying (searching) the file content could be very expensive and requires long delays as the file size increases.

2.	Data Redundancy: As explained in Section 13.2, data redundancy could be caused by using different copies of a file to support different applications.

This could lead to data integrity problems with the same record having different values in different copies of a file.

3.	Program-Data Dependency: As data is made to serve a specific application, any change in the application/program will require a change in the data files structure.
4.	Lack of Data Sharing: is a major issue in using a traditional file system with no way to allow the shared concurrent access of two users (applications) to a bare file.

13.3 Disadvantages of Using the Traditional ...

		One way around this is to use a file manager that manages and regulates the access to files.
		This is one of the main purposes of using databases which are discussed in the next lecture as an alternative to using the traditional file system to directly support applications.

5.	Lack of Security: It is difficult to manage and restrict access to data by different user (with different privileges) using the file system.