Database processing and database management systems (DBMS) have been a corner stone of modern society. In science, engineering, business and enterprise alike, data play a central role in their progress. With recent developments in the fields of big data, machine learning, social networks, cloud computing and Internet of Things, to name a few, increases in data volume and manifestations of new data patterns have made the study of databases both more interesting and more challenging. In this course, we cover the theory and practice of database management systems. We discuss the modeling, programming, management, architecture and implementation aspects of DBMS, study the evolution from well-established relational SQL databases to the new NoSQL databases, and cover the newest trends in database research brought about by the challenges of the big data analytics.