Physical Database Design

Logical database design is the process of constructing a business data model, that is, a model of the business rules applying to some enterprise. Physical database design involves taking the results from the logical design process, fine-tuning them against the performance and storage requirements of some application and then implementing them in the mechanisms of some DBMS. With the rise of the relational data model, the emphasis has changed in the database literature. Prior to the relational data model the emphasis in texts on database design tended to concentrate on physical database design. Nowadays, the emphasis is clearly directed at logical database design. This is primarily because some success has been achieved in formalising logical design. Physical design, in comparison, is relatively unformalised.