Similar to almost any job role detrimental to the productivity and efficiency of an organization, the life of a DBA is without a doubt stressful. Managing the database and the corresponding DBA team isn’t easy and many chalk that up to the fact that today’s IT organization consists of multiple operating systems, databases, and applications. Furthermore, the larger the organization, the wider geographic net is cast creating a need for DBAs to manage this complexity across multiple, dispersed locations. So what’s a DBA to do? While your first inclination may be to bang your head against the wall and move to a faraway tropical island, stop! We’ve got the answer AND we’ve even gone so far as to break it down into three simple methods for you: balance key business metrics, understand the challenges DBAs face and find the right tools to help you do your job. A Balancing Act A DBA’s job requires them to focus their attention on three primary business metrics: cost, service and risk. Although many know that these metrics are important, only few might truly understand why they’re so important. Make sure to keep in mind that when balancing these three factors, a significant amount of intuition, good judgment and accurate data must be executed. Here’s a quick breakdown of what we mean: Cost Not surprisingly, DBA salaries account for most of the cost allocated to the database team. Whether you’d like to admit this or not, enhancing the productivity of the DBA team is directly essential to maximizing the team’s cost effectiveness. A simple way to make sure productivity is maintained, invest in tools that automate tasks – especially those related to managing critical databases. Service Some databases carry a service expectation that is either implicitly understood by the admin teams or formalized into a service level. When it comes to the latter, SLAs are usually defined by the application team and passed onto the corresponding admin of each asset within the greater application stack. Because the database is such a vital role to any application, a DBA’s service is measured by availability and response time. Risk This third and final metric could arguably be considered the most important factor to consider when balancing key business needs. Because the database is such a vital, centralized component of the application stack, any change – no matter how big or small – can inflict the possibility of risk to the business. Get On My Level – Understanding New DBA Challenges We might sound like a broken record however, it goes without saying that advances in technology, fueled largely by the mainstream expansion of the Internet has collectively led to the development of business critical applications. These applications generate massive amounts of revenue and interact with customers, i.e. they’re considered direct business drivers. The “new” DBA might be responsible for helping out on teams dedicated to supporting these business applications, and it’s in these cases where the DBA will feel pressure not only from the operation as a whole, but also from the application teams. Whether we want to admit it or not, the central role of the database within the application stack requires the DBA to play a dual role: effectively manage resources AND be sensitive to the service experience of the application users. Tools to Help Make Sense of the Complexity According to experts, as many as 90% of companies have IT organizations managing at least two database management system platforms, meaning that each DBA is responsible for just about 35 databases. For those juggling that kind of infrastructure, we feel inclined to suggest choosing a third-party tool that will help provide objective measurement and management of performance across all the different database platforms. Third-party tools help to increase productivity and reduce cost while ensuring high service quality. In fact, according to Forrester Research, specialized administrative and management technology like these third-party tools provide a productivity gain of at least 20 percent. Interested in learning more? Check out this Dell Software-authored whitepaper, “Key Methods for Managing Complex Database Environments” here .
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