Several alternatives to manage large XML document collections exist, ranging from file systems over relational or other database systems to specifically tailored XML base management systems. In this paper we review Natix, a database management system designed from scratch for storing and processing XML data. Contrary to the common belief that management of XML data is just another application for traditional databases like relational systems, we indicate how almost every component in a database system is affected in terms of adequacy and performance. We show what kind of problems have to be tackled when designing and optimizing areas such as storage, transaction management comprising recovery and multi-user synchronization as well as query processing for XML.