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New Careers for DBA

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PANKAJ
New Update

As IT sector is booming, there's no surprise that the demand for DBAs

continues to rise. Today DBAs not only manage databases, but with the emergence

of new trends like SOA and grid computing, they are coming out of those clichéd

back-office works and are taking up additional roles and duties. Here we tell

you what does it take to become a DBA and the new opportunities have emerged in

this career path

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Today every organization's functioning revolves around its database. One

can't imagine how an organization would even survive without databases, be it

any field or industry. Databases form the core and the most critical asset of an

organization. Whether it's a manufacturing setup, or a telecom giant, a bank, or

a healthcare institute, database are a key component of every enterprise

IT deployment. Whether it's an ERP solution or a CRM, a telecom billing

application, or a hospital management system, everything requires a database at

the back-end. The onus of managing and maintaining the database lies with a DBA

or Database Administrator. Believe it or not, the job ofa DBA is studded with

tons of responsibilities, whether it's for ensuring data security, doing

disaster recovery, instance management, performance tuning, instance cloning, or

doing a plain old back up routine for the database. Moreover, even a software

developer or business analyst's functioning is completely linked to the DBA

because the database has to be integrated into everything. So in essence, DBAs

are considered the linchpins of any IT project.

Since the number of IT deployments is growing in India, there's obviously

tremendous opportunity out there for DBAs. Even in the US, the US Bureau of

Labor Statistics shows that the demand for DBAs will grow 37% between 2006 and

2016. This is in fact, a much higher growth rate than any other occupation in

the IT sector. Another point worth mentioning is that the role of DBAs is not

limited to database management anymore. Thanks to a few key emerging trends,

DBAs are now coming out of their backoffice image and getting involved in

organizational planning and implementation decisions.

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That's why, the focus of our IT careers section this time is on DBAs. In this

story, we'll talk about growth opportunities for existing DBAs as well as advice

for the 'wannabes'.

Relevance for DBA in Enterprise



A DBA's most important job is to maintain, backup and recover data and to

ensure that it's available at all times. This job is crucial for mission

critical systems like banks and financial institutions where loss of data is

just not affordable. The simplest example would be if a bank isn't able to

access a customers' balance because the database is down. A DBA needs to ensure

both availability and security of the data all the time. He or she has to make

policies for data integrity and also maintain backups or distributed replicated

databases so that the organization's productivity isn't hampered due to

failures.

The duties or roles that a DBA performs for an organization apart from those

mentioned above can be summed up as follows:

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Database Implementation & Design: The DBA is responsible for a

well-designed and implemented database that will help in maximizing performance,

and give opportunity for scalability, flexibility and above all reliability. For

this the DBA must be conversant with the installation and upgrades issues and

also having the business knowledge of the domain will help in structuring the

optimized databases.

Database Monitoring: As the size of a database becomes larger and

larger, the DBA has to ensure that the database continues to remain fast and

responsive. They have to eliminate bottlenecks that slow down database

transactions. They also have to monitor the state of the database for occurrence

of errors and take pre-emptive measures to avoid them from happening. For

monitoring, now DBAs have many administrative tools available with them.

Platforms like DB2, Oracle & SQL

Server are most prevalent among enterprises. For a professional who wants to

take up DBA as his career aim, it is necessary to have knowledge of software

development languages as it helps him to debug database issues and issues

related to performance tuning. It further helps to automate the regular DBA

activities. Apart from possessing core database concepts, he should have

analytical abilities and should also be aware of all the features available

in the database tool that he is using.


Kalpana Jaishankar,

Vice President, Human Resource, Patni

A number of new application areas have

emerged recently which require data management support that extends well

beyond the traditional data management functions. Also importantly, advances

in computer hardware, network and user interface technology have re-defined

the context in which DBA needs to perform. Three new database application

areas are: complex object databases, high-volume databases, and mobile

databases.

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Data Security: To ensure that the enterprise's data is secured, the

DBAs have to design rigorous security policies involving the data as well as

users accessing that data. This involves assigning users to databases and

determining the proper security policies for every user.

Being in-sync with developers: The DBAs have to work in tandem with

developers for an application project, so that the software application performs

in an optimized manner with the database. It's always a plus for a DBA to have

knowledge of software programming and development lifecycle, so that he can

identify the areas where the data calls from the application to the database can

be performed in efficient manner.

Database administrators will typically possess advanced knowledge of the

Structured Query Language, also known as SQL, as well as the ability to plan the

structure and design of the database using such tools as entity relationship

diagrams, and the creation of database objects, including tables, forms and

views. Database administrators are also typically responsible for implementing

security procedures and designing the database to ensure that only valid data is

entered into the database.

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Career path for a DBA



A person who wants to be a DBA has to follow a strenuous career path where

he gains knowledge from his experience, by being a database developer at the

beginning and later climbing the ladder to a DBA. The core skill sets that a DBA

should possesses ar ea complete understanding of the concepts of the database

architecture like Tables, View, Queries, Primary and Foreign Keys concepts along

with advanced knowledge of concepts like partitions, tablespaces, procedures and

business objects, etc. The DBA should have the ability to talk to the database

through query languages like SQL and PL/SQL. To attain success a DBA should also

have the knowledge of the complete Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) along

with some software programming skills.

The most popular database software out there are fairly well-known--Oracle,

MS SQL Server, IBM DB2 from the commercial space, and MySQ and PostGreSQL from

the Open Source arena. You must gain expertise in any of these databases.

Joyjeet Banerjee,

Principal Consultant, Oracle Consulting

Earlier the scope of DBAs was restricted to

the database level, but today, a lot more is expected from them. With new

market trends coming up, a new class of DBAs has emerged for Oracle, known

as Apps DBA. This profile involves managing the entire Oracle Applications

suite, apart from routine database administration. i.e. An Apps DBA not only

administrs an Oracle Database (9i, 10g, and 11g), but also administers

Oracle Applications (11i/R12).

The Demand for DBAs is very high in the

market. In fact, today, it's very difficult to get a good DBA. Even in the

future, the market for DBAs would always be there as there is hardly any

company that doesn't have to maintain their database.

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Finally, an understanding of shell scripting in Windows NT and UNIX, and

common scripting languages and Web skills (Java, HTML, etc.) are also additional

skills that can help you land a lucrative position as a DBA.

Similarly, experienced DBA professionals, who already have expertise in

handling database implementation projects, can further enhance their skill sets

by learning the frameworks for SOA or by venturing into the ERP domain by

learning application solutions like Oracle Apps.

New Opportunities for DBA



Previously, a DBA was someone who simply managed database systems, but those

systems now include application and Web servers as well, and are integrated with

application development language, for example Oracle Applications database

server. Above that enterprises are now moving towards automation by deploying

business applications like ERP, CRM, etc. and DBAs are now expected to perform

from above their core capabilities towards these automation applications as

well. The database solutions themselves have automated several of the functions

that a DBA used to perform, now with such tools to aid himself, a DBA is less

focused on performance tuning, database migrations, backups and upgrades and is

more focused on matters like planning and implementing database virtualization

and managing the ever-increasing volume of data at various layers of IT stack.

Also with the emergence of new trends like SOA and data warehousing, a DBA is

all set to extend his expertise to the new work domains.

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Following are some of the newer areas where a DBA has opportunities to foray

into:-

SOA: Service Oriented Architecture involves all levels of the IT

workforce, right from developers to business process planners. So how could

database professionals be left out? When an organization plans for a SOA

implementation, the enterprise architects work with business experts to identify

services that will be aligned with the needs of the organization and to be

provided through an application. A DBA, who has worked for the organization's

database implementation, very well knows the process that is dependent on the

database and the business knowledge of those processes. Thus, if he can have the

understanding of the SOA framework he can provide the support for identifying

the enterprise's business processes for aligning them with the applications and

optimizing the database performance for such processes.

Automation: Enterprises are moving towards ERP and CRM applications

and that has been a reason for the increased demands for DBA professionals.

These applications being data-centric, a DBA who has the functional domain

knowledge of the business can take on the responsibility to maintain the

database as well as the enterprise application. For example an Oracle DBA who

upgrades his knowledge for understanding the Oracle Apps for the business

functions for his organization, can become an Oracle Apps ERP consultant for the

organization.

Moorthi Chokkanathan,

Head — India and Mexico, Delivery and Operations, Hexaware Technologies

Ltd.

Mr. Chokkanathan was interviewed by

Jasmine Desai on the evolving roles for DBAs and the market trends in this

domain. Excerpts from the interview:

How is the demand for DBAs, given the

current market scenario?




DBA requirements were, are and will be there, whatever the market scenario.
As long as enterprises have IT applications supporting their business

processes and activities which have enormous amount of data that gets stored

in underlying databases, DBA skills and resources will always be in demand.

In today's enterprise the emphasis is more towards creating an enterprise

wide strategy for application architecture, data architecture and database

standards. Once the architecture and standards are in place the next thing

is to create the plan for selection, sizing, designing, maintaining of

databases. A DBA who has been maintaining, managing the back office work

would be a key candidate to get into the role of a Data architect, designer.

Needless to say, one has to learn the domain of the enterprise in which they

are working and also be updated with the latest technological trends. This

would not only help the individual to perform the new roles but also would

help him to make the right choices for selection of database, sizing,

designing.

Which industry vertical has the highest

requirement for DBAs and what are the types of job roles available for

database professionals? What are the new job opportunities that are coming

up for such database professionals?



Banking and financial organizations, airlines companies, insurance

organizations have highest requirement of DBAs. Industry segments where huge

number of data transactions takes place have higher potential for DBA

related work. Based on activities and domain, different kind of DBA roles

are developing. Web Administrator DBA, Dataware Housing DBA, DBA Manager,

Application DBA are the different upcoming DBA roles in the industry.

Agile DBA: Agile development has been a recent trend, similarly, in

the database domain Agile DBA term has sprung up. An Agile DBA is a person who

is involved with the creation and evolution of the data aspects of one or more

applications. Apart from the traditional skills like database programming,

database administration, data testing and modeling, an Agile DBA must have the

understanding of all the aspects of the software process. They should also have

the development skills as they will be working in collaboration with the

developers for better interactivity between the application and the database.

Agile DBAs will also need to work with application developers to model their

data needs, working with UML-based artifacts such class diagrams with some

project teams and conceptual data models with other teams. Agile DBAs will work

with application developers to write and test database code such as stored

procedures, data-oriented code within applications that interacts with their

data sources, and even aid in mapping the application schema to the data schema.

DW and BI: A DBA can upgrade his skills to become a Data Warehouse expert for

providing the data mining duties and designing the optimal database structures

that will house the enterprises archived database that will be used for Business

Intelligence purpose. The data warehouse works as decision making system that

contains the enterprise's historical data. The DBA will have to extend his

capabilities to design a warehouse that will then be used for Business

Intelligence. The data warehouse DBA must also understand predictive modeling

and probability analysis. He should also know the company business, the data

warehouse architecture and also be an expert in the SQL language. The DBAs have

to make themselves familiar with the BI tools also so as to incorporate those

applications with the data warehouse.

Certifications



For a DBA it is always necessary to be abreast with the latest trends in the

database domain and also be quiet adept with the database administration

solution that he works upon. Though the vendors keep bringing new features into

the database solutions, it is always advantageous for a DBA to hold

certifications that will authenticate his knowledge skill and also enhance his

chances while any recruitment process. There are various certifications

available; each vendor has their own certification exams at various levels.

These levels extend from beginners to the expert level.

Though certifications cannot be compensated with the experience a DBA possess

through his various database implementations projects he undertook during his

career.

As the roles of the DBAs are also evolving, there are certifications

available for DBAs who are venturing into new domain, say Data warehousing or

Applications management.

The growth prospects of DBAs is very high, and since their knowledge is much

more than developers and other functional people in the IT industry, they are

the one who are most preferred to lead the implementation projects and also

become the head of IT in enterprises. Though in every industry segment the role

of DBA differs, but their requirements increase day by day as the IT industry

progresses.

The following table shows various certifications that are available for

different database platforms.

Rahul Sah with help from Jasmine Desai

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