Abstract
The maturation of database management system (DBMS) technology has coincided with significant developments in distributed computing and parallel processing technologies. The end result is the development of distributed database management systems and parallel database management systems that are now the dominant data management tools for highly data-intensive applications. With the emergence of cloud computing, distributed and parallel database systems have started to converge. In this chapter, we present an overview of the distributed DBMS and parallel DBMS technologies, highlight the unique characteristics of each, and indicate the similarities between them. We also discuss the new challenges and emerging solutions.