Databank

A databank, also written as data bank, is a centralized repository of data designed for storage, retrieval, and analysis. In information technology, the term can refer to a database or to any organized collection of related data assets that supports decision making, research, and application development.

Databanks organize data through schemas or document models, and store it in structured formats such as tables, records, or document collections. Metadata describes the data’s meaning, provenance, and relationships, while indexes speed up queries and ensure efficient access.

There are various kinds of databanks, including relational databases, NoSQL stores, data warehouses, data lakes, and specialized scientific or enterprise databanks. They can be transactional, designed for day-to-day operations, or analytical, optimized for reporting, analytics, and machine learning.

Data management activities surrounding a databank include data ingestion, cleansing, transformation, storage, backup, and archiving. Security, privacy, and governance controls manage access, ensure integrity, and support compliance with laws and organizational policies.

Applications range from business intelligence and customer management to scientific research and government records. Notable examples include GenBank, a public sequence databank for nucleotide and protein data, and various corporate data stores used for analytics.

The term databank is often used interchangeably with database, though some writers reserve databank for large, centralized repositories or for data collections as a concept rather than a specific software system.