Well, I didn't want to write this much, but some things need correcting.

I have been a Teradata DBA for over 2 years. The duties are very different than with SQL Server and Oracle. Before that, I worked on a conversion from Oracle to Teradata. Since learning about SQL Server and a little bit about Oracle, I have been amazed at the amount of work required by a DBA compared to my duties on Teradata. Once a Teradata system is set up and the database objects have been optimized, it requires much less hands-on interaction from a DBA. Even setting up a new database or user is a breeze compared to SQL Server.

Having said that, there are some caveats:

1. A little understanding of the system hardware and software goes a long way. Teradata architecture utilizes Massively Parallel Processing - much different than SQL Server or other RDBMSs. This goes a long way toward optimizing query performance and and space management. The system is split into AMPs (Access Module Processors): several virtual processors working in parallel on their own table rows with their own dedicated disk space. Similar to a clustered index in SQL Server but not the same, Teradata's Primary Index (mandatory on every table) determines how the data is physically distributed across each of its dedicated disk arrays; however, Teradata doesn't care how the data is ordered. It just rams each table row onto disk in whatever order it gets it. The ordering is done upon retrieval. This gives Teradata its speed.

2. Setting up the tables to be stored with the best primary index, and having the queries written to take advantage of that is probably 80% of ensuring promised performance gains over other RDBMS's. Poor design can seriously impact query performance. I cannot stress this point enough.

3. Unfortunately, like the previous contributor expressed, Teradata does not have many user-friendly tools or wizards, but its database management tools have improved considerably in the few short years since I started managing them. If you are on a Teradata 12 or 13 platform, these are the latest and greatest versions and you won't know how lucky you are. Teradata doesn't care about Primary Keys or Foreign Keys (While you can define those constraints if you want to, performance will not change).

4. Collecting statistics is indeed important, but they must be collected at the proper time (generally after a table load) or they will not improve performance. Teradata gives an explain plan on each query to indicate if and how the query can be optimized and suggests columns and indexes on which statistics should be collected or updated.

5. Using Workload Manager (TDWM) and other management tools, setting up users under different Priority Groups will allow the Teradata system to distribute the load of CPU and disk I/O in a way that allows the most important queries to run faster. This was the main are of my duties as a DBA.

6. Yes, the toolset offered by Teradata pales in comparison to Oracle and Microsoft, but performance on a healthy Teradata database system is miles ahead of the equivalent data on SQL Server and Oracle. Besides, there are many third-party tools out there with wizards, and schedulers and GUIs. Teradata concentrates on performance and it delivers.

Simply, Teradata is the fastest, most robust, most scalable DBMS on the market. Period. Check Gartner Group's website and you will see it is the most advanced technology in the business. I have seen a Teradata query bring back GIGABYTES of data in a few seconds. I know it works.

In closing I would say "Your job just got easier" but there will be a learning period to ramp up and take advantage of that new knowledge. You can go to teradata.com and order a working version of the latest database system to learn on, that comes with documentation on the architecture and tools.

And, no, I'm not a Teradata salesman. The facts speak for themselves. The largest, fastest databases in the world are Teradata systems. E-bay, AT&T and Wal-Mart all use Teradata, as well as several airlines and many other Fortune 500 companies.

I hope this helps.