The majority of enterprise applications use database systems as their persistence. Databases are at the core of the enterprise system, containing the application's data. As of today, data is already one the most important commodities. Companies spend a lot of time and effort gathering, securing, and using data.

There are several ways in which a state is represented in enterprise systems; however, relational databases are still the most popular. The concepts and usages are well understood and well integrated in enterprise technology.