A new study conducted by Unisphere Research and sponsored by Quest Software examines the challenges being faced by database administrators (DBAs) and other data professionals who have long been the key guardians of companies’ critical data assets. DBAs’ primary responsibilities have been aimed at ensuring that data is safely, securely, accurately, and appropriately stored, managed, and maintained. However, over the last 10 years, major trends in technology have shaped—and reshaped—the ongoing role of the DBA in many organizations, according to the study, “DBAs Face New Challenges: Trends in Database Administration.”
In particular, new data-producing devices—ranging from smartphone technology to other IoT connected devices—have continued to drive data growth, often requiring DBAs to manage not only more data, but more database instances as well as a wider range of database management systems. New data types, coupled with emerging applications, have created the need to managed data housed in systems beyond on-premise, relational data management systems.
Close to 60% of the respondents have more than 100TB of structured data under management, with that data spread over many database instances. More than 40% of the respondents have more than 100 database instances running, and close to 20% have more than 500 database instances in operation. And, 45% of respondents are managing relational databases in the cloud, while another third anticipate managing relational databases in the cloud within a year. The use of cloud technologies will be the biggest challenges and ultimately have the greatest impact on DBAs over the next 3 years.
And, while so far, NoSQL solutions are deployed only for a defined slice of the overall enterprise data, the study fines that NoSQL databases are frequently used to manage a significant amount of data.
Amidst this more complicated data landscape, seasoned DBAs are seen as key influencers in the overall data management infrastructure and their input is sought for decisions such as when to move data to the cloud.
Although database performance continues to be the number-one priority for these data professionals, database management tools have helped to reduce the time some DBAs must invest in some routine operations, allowing them to better manage these larger roles and responsibilities. By reducing the time that DBAs must commit to routine tasks, automation can be offer DBAs the opportunity to expand the scope of their roles to include applications
To download the full 30-page report, “DBAs Face New Challenges: Trends in Database Administration,” go here.