Why use relational database?

Encapsulation of data in terms of rigorous logical model

• No need to know about internals of data storage
• Forces one to think carefully about data structure

ANSI standard query language (SQL) for finding information one is interested in

• Remote filtering
• Speeds up path from science question to answer
• Facilitates communication

Many implementations, commercial and open source

• Advanced query optimizers (indexes, clustering)