Excellent editorial Brandie and right on the mark!

The problem really, is that data is an asset to any company and yet decades into the computer revolution most executives and managers don't think of it that way. Sure, company higher ups will give speeches about the importance and value of data, but they do not know let alone understand the particulars of managing and if you will, sheparding data.

I saw this time and time again during my days in the technical trenches and then when I rose through the management ranks, frankly, it only got worse. For example, I remember in one job I worked the DBA quit and the company directors kept pushing to move one of the younger, (very much) less experienced guys into the position. When I argued that data was an important asset and we needed an experienced, qualified DBA, well, I was shot down. Directors saw it as merely filling a role, or in the vernacular, getting a warm backside into an empty chair.

If you look deeper into some of the recent data theft incidents such as the hijacking of TJX Corporation's data, what you find is just that. Someone is acting as the DBA when really, they are not a DBA and lack the vital skills necessary to protect data.

For years I have whined on about some definitive measure of what a DBA is, and as your editorial assists in pointing out, that measure is still remains decades overdue.