In many enterprise contexts, shared databases of very important data are more valuable, more long-lived and more managed than easily replaced applications; applications, often strange and ad hoc ones, are the means applied to the end of keeping databases current and useful for business. Altering old tables in backwards-incompatible ways isn&#x27;t normally an option.<p>If you treat a database as &quot;a mechanism for persisting records&#x2F;objects whose structure is determined by domain modeling&quot; your database will be messy and redundant.