The DBA of the Future

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The DBA of the Future

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Andy Warren

Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2011 9:22 PM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA of the Future

Andy
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Post #1093283

aphillippe

Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:53 PM

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Not specific to SQL Server or DBAs but I see the 'in house' IT staff having to become much more business-oriented, more generalised and more project oriented. The trend towards outsourcing will mean that specialised roles like DBAs will be a thing of the past. Unless you work in India.

Post #1093315

pjjaad

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 3:30 AM

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Backups, perfomance tuning , indexation et all are all going to be done without a human being having to have a single technical skill that current DBA's utilise. Automation of most of the skills used by a DBA today are going to come into the remit of software / hardware.

Backups are going to become redundant as for example memristors are now being comercialised.

All databases are going to be running in Memory as it were using memristor technology.

Solid state , current state storeage will negate the need for a backup.

if you want a copy of the database it will be instant and uptodate. Replication , restoration etc wouldnt be needed.

Load Balancing will become fully automated. If it is needed at all. Technology without the interference of a DBA will become the status quo and as for index and perfomance issues these too will be internalised and withheld from the human being DBA.

No I think its all going to be internalised and driven by the database itself. Software rather than DBA's will handle all of the day to day requirements.

Data is going to be held in a always on no loss state due to new memristor technology. ITs the biggest game changer for data storage in the history of computing.

The day of the DBA mass extinction is approaching.

On the plus side well I will have no need to worry about data loss anymore

Post #1093388

James Stover

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 5:10 AM

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Let's not forget the cloud. Being able to interface between the private and public cloud will certainly be a desired skill.

James Stover, McDBA

Post #1093407

lrutkowski

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 5:36 AM

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"Backups, indexing, jobs, monitoring, and performance tuning are still core skills"

You better believe it. it was true ten years ago, it was true 20 years ago, it was true 30 years ago. How do I know? Been there, still there.
It may change, as to how you do these things, but it is still as important today as it was then, and will remain so, no matter how technology changes.

"The amount of data we manage increases, and the number of DBA’s managing it decreases"

Ain't that the truth.

Are we having fun yet?

Leonard

Post #1093415

Andy Leonard

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 6:00 AM

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Great editorial Andy!

Like you, I see the job changing. I think everything you mentioned is quite possible given current trends, and I agree with another comment about having to know way more about the business.

I see the term / title Data Professional or Database Professional growing in popularity now.

:{>

Andy Leonard
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Post #1093435

blandry

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 6:12 AM

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For over 20 years one of my pet peeves and complaints has been that the term (or acronym) "DBA" has never had a solid definition. I still go into medium and large companies and get introduced to their DBA's and find that skill sets vary wildly - as does managements perspective of what "DBA" means. Ask about "Corporate Controllers", "Human Resource Professionals", and even "Developers" and everyone understands what these people do. Ask about a "DBA" and the most common answer I hear is that people are not really sure what [person's name] does, but its vital to the operation.

Its interesting then that in Andy's piece this morning he too falls into the same trap. Listing responsibilities, and skill sets to define "DBA". Well, my view of the future is quite different.

I believe DBA will become a graduate or undergraduate degree program. I believe all the things Andy lists will be taught in college classes, not on the job, through books, or video learning series. I believe there will no longer be any separation at all between those who do SQL Server versus Oracle versus [whatever].

And lastly I believe that when the term (or acronym) "DBA" gets mentioned people will know just what that person does - just like now where you can walk into any company and be introduced to the Human Resource Director and know pretty much what that person does.

And I believe that something I heard 15 years ago will go away for good... I once heard a CEO asked what his DBA does. His answer? "He's a DBA, ya know, 'Dont Bother Asking'".

There's no such thing as dumb questions, only poorly thought-out answers...

Post #1093450

grahamc

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 6:44 AM

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Well personally I aim to be retired by then... 32 now Wink

(will let you know how I get on with this), but in the spirit of the article

Go back 10 years, what has changed, in all honesty, not that much - SQL Server 2000 oooohhhhh...... Hehe

SQL Server 2008 looks nicer, can have more resources, etc, but nothing spectacular!! We will probably have quality load balancing solutions, solid state disks and who knows maybe a 128bit version of SQL Server w00t

I see the biggest changes coming on the BI side of things, been able to expand and drill with more easy, better ways of seeing the data, etc.

The only real difference I see happen, is that DBAs, database developers and infrastructure (especially since this is where the backup and recovery market is going) will be a bit more of a single role, but I doubt that much will change.

SQL Server (or Oracle or whatever) will never become self maintaining... The reason.... Microsoft makes a lot of money off of people that want to train up to be DBAs, companies bringing in Microsoft consultants, Gold partners, etc, etc. I just dont see this "perfect" self-sustaining SQL Server ever existing. The entire market behind the "new/next version" is that it improves on the previous one. If they made it perfect, they would have no effectively written themselves out of the market.......

We will still have the same problems, DBAs wanting to do it properly VS managers/business/companies wanting to do it on the cheap.

Post #1093462

Dizzy Desi

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 6:52 AM

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aphillippe (4/13/2011)

I agree with Andy's points, and aphillippe brings up another good one - I think DBAs will do more than just database work. We're already seeing it in my company - we're laying off several subcontractors, but the workload is not going down proportionately. Management is now telling DBAs that they're going to have to help make up for the lack of developers, while still maintaining our current DBA tasks and increasing our skills in that area.

Post #1093466

SanDroid

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011 7:35 AM

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Wow... we always joke around here that we live and work in the future.

Must be true becuase this is exactly how we work now.

Post #1093499

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