# eXtremeDB Fundamental Concepts

It is important to understand some fundamental database concepts, and relate these to specific elements or characteristics of eXtremeDB. Even developers experienced with database management systems are encouraged to read this section for a full understanding of eXtremeDB and its positioning with respect to other database products.

Definitions | Basic terms used throughout the eXtremeDB documentation
Database Models | The Hierarchical, Network, Relational and Object-Oriented Database models
Embedded and Client/Server Database Management | Embedded eXtremeDB as opposed to Client-Server Database Management
Cross-platform Database Application Development | Cross-platform development with eXtremeDB
Data Definition Language, Database Schema and DDL Compiler | The eXtremeDB DDL and `mcocomp` schema compiler
Database Storage | Comparison of In-Memory vs. Persistent Database Storage
Concurrency Control and Transactions | How the eXtremeDB transaction managers control multi-threaded and multi-process database access
Indexes | The various specialized eXtremeDB indexes
Native Language and SQL APIs | The eXtremeDB supported programming APIs; building eXtremeDB applications with the development environment of your choice
eXtremeDB as a Client/Server Development Tool | Using eXtremeDB and eXtremeSQL to develop Client/Server applications
eXtremeDB Distributed Database Topologies | The Distributed Database solutions offered by eXtremeDB High Availability, eXtremeDB Cluster and sharding with eXtremeSQL

Our perspective on database systems is from the standpoint of embedded and low-latency systems with the objective of providing a highly efficient storage solution. It is also important to provide a highly productive database development tool for application developers, which makes use of modern programming techniques. Please view pages Getting Started with eXtremeDB to get up and running quickly, and Building and Running SDK Samples to understand the steps to building eXtremeDB applications with supported programming language APIs.