Database Admins: Essential employees for today’s organizations

It’s been said that the Database Administrator (DBA) is a dying role, thanks to organizations modernizing how they manage and store data. However, a recent article published on arstechnica.com – “It’s the data stupid: Why database admins are more important than ever” – makes a strong opposing argument.

Check out the following excerpts:

“Data is even more important today,” said Kenny Gorman, a database veteran and co-founder of the real-time data service company Eventador. “Businesses used to rely on databases to be sound, run smoothly, and give good reporting. But now, data actually makes you more competitive, and there are more job titles working with data and more technologies that use it. And the database professional is at the core of that.”

Some things haven’t changed, even with the new technologies. “Optimizing queries and moving data around have not gone away, and neither has the need to monitor and maintain these databases,” said Chris Lalonde, vice president and GM of Data at Rackspace. “And those ‘schema-less’ databases really do have schemas as it turns out—they’re just more loosely defined.”

As a result, Lalonde explained, the DBAs “have to have the same skills they’ve always had. Obviously modern DBAs have to be more flexible, understand a breadth of technologies, and work well in agile environments. What we look for in general is someone who really understands database fundamentals, because understanding those fundamentals translates across technologies well.”

Read the full article here.