Depends what you mean by a DBA. If you're taking about someone that watches jobs, runs backups and deploys changes only, then maybe their job will disappear. There's a lot more to a DBA though.
The complexity and size of systems is just increasing, the number of systems managed is also increasing. I think it was Kimberly who asked during her pre-con session how many database servers people were managing. about 10% of the room (rough guess) were managing more than 100 servers. 3 people were managing more than 1000.
There's no way one person can completely manage 1000 servers without a lot of automated management tools. It's silly to even suggest it. The more the management tools make routine stuff (like deploying changes and apps) easy, the more time the DBA can spend on proactive fixes and polishing skills.
Does mom & pop's corner shop need a DBA? Probably not. Companies with several hundred GB - TB databases on multiple servers with 5 nines availability requirements, audit requirements and all that. No way they're going to manage without people dedicated to managing the servers.
The DBA job is broadening, for sure, but going away? I doubt it.
One of the things that struck me with all of the new “management features” in SQL 2008 was that many of them did not apply to “standard” installs which creates a barrier to entry that can only hurt MS in the long run
Typically it's the high-availability and scalability features that are limited to enterprise and it's done that way so that the people who really need that (big companies typically) will buy Enterprise. No surprise there. Apparently they put a lot of thought into what features are standard (or lower) and what are enterprise.
Which “management features” specifically were you referring to?
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability