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AUTHOR: Betty Lovingood, MCSE, MCDBA
DATE: August 29, 2007

ABSTRACT

Databases are essential storage tools used by most businesses in every industry. Database administrators (DBAs) are responsible for creating, maintaining, fine-tuning, and securing databases.

In today’s fast-paced information driven age, more and more data needs to be stored and retrieved quickly in the most secured way. In order to manage this ever growing amount of data, more and more database administrator positions have been created.

Someone interested in becoming a database administrator will need to consider factors, such as a DBA’s job functions, database technology, required education and work experience, salary, and future expectations for DBAs.

A few years ago, outsourcing and automation were seen as a threat to DBAs because they would potentially drive DBAs out of existence. Today, automation is handling the time consuming and tedious tasks, leaving DBAs with more interesting job functions, such as database security, development, etc… With increasing automation and the growth of security concerns, outsourcing has also become less popular.

Automation has set higher technical standards for DBAs who are strongly encouraged to get vendor certified and expand their technical knowledge beyond database related skills.

Armed with a variety of technical skills, certifications, and a passion for databases, DBAs have a very bright future ahead of them and should never have to worry about job security.



INTRODUCTION

Background

Databases are essential storage tools used by most businesses in every industry. Database administrators are responsible for creating, maintaining, fine-tuning, and securing databases.

In today’s fast-paced information driven age, more and more data needs to be stored and retrieved quickly in the most secured way. In order to manage this ever growing amount of data, more and more database administrator positions have been created.

Choosing a career or switching careers is a life impacting decision which requires careful consideration and thorough research. Because database administration involves an extensive technical background, a college degree and/or a vendor’s certification are generally required in order to enter this field, thus requiring long-term planning. By educating potential database administrators on current and speculated future trends of database administration, better career choices will result.

Subject and Purpose

Students or current employees who are considering a career in database administration need answers to these basic questions:

  • What are the current trends in database administration?
  • What are the educational and experience requirements to become a database administrator?
  • What is the salary range for database administrators?
  • What are the speculated future trends for database administrators based on the current trends and advances in technology?

Information Sources

The data I used for this report comes from a variety of sources: government and private industry employees and literature pertaining to this topic area.

Scope

The following analysis includes these areas: Current and future trends in database management; education, technical requirement, and/or prior experience needed to become a DBA; database administrators’ job functions and their salary range.



COLLECTED DATA


The Current Trends in Database Administration

The IT labor force

History has shown that the advances in technology have contributed to the creation of more high-level positions and to the elimination of more labor intensive jobs. This means that a more educated and technologically advanced work force is in higher demand. With an aging workforce and the need for more skilled workers, IT workers including database administrators (DBAs) are currently in high demand. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics lists the DBA profession as one of the 10 fastest growing occupations and predicts a 66 percent increase in the demand for DBAs until 2010.

The DBA job functions

According to monster.com, database administrators are usually tasked with the administration, architecture, and design of an organization’s databases, which involves the creation and maintenance of databases, database performance and tuning, retrieval of data, data security, and interaction with applications. Junior DBAs are more likely to be assigned database administration related tasks. Senior DBAs often handle more complicated tasks, such as data architecture, strategy, and design. Below is a pie chart representing some of the more complicated tasks a DBA is required to perform on a regular basis.

Chart 1: Percent Distribution of Overall Activities Performed by DBAs

Source: http://www.bwdb2ug.org/Presentations/Database%20Trends.pdf


Craig Mullins, director of product strategy at San Francisco-based Embarcadero Technologies and former DBA recommends that future DBAs be prepared to work long hours, even in the middle of the night or on holiday weekends. He also advises that DBAs work well with others since most database projects involve team work.

The impact of automation and outsourcing on database administrators

The increasing cost of IT labor has prompted businesses to evaluate alternative options. Database vendors have been working with businesses to create more performing and more automated database management systems in order to reduce labor cost and increase productivity. Outsourcing has also become a popular way for businesses to reduce labor cost and increase productivity.
Do automation and outsourcing take away DBA jobs? Not at all! With self-managed databases and less labor intensive tasks, database administrators are spending less time on labor intensive functions and more time on more sophisticated tasks.
According to Ken Lovingood, Application Architect at BlueIce Software in Maryland, with an ever increasing use of data, the creation of more data types, the explosion of e-commerce, the increasing need for higher security and auditing capabilities, and the demand for higher data availability solutions, database administrators have to take on a more technical role and get more involved in the application development life cycle.

Centralized vs. decentralized organizational models

In order to become more efficient, businesses are changing their organization to include a centralized data management group within the IT department. This Data Resource Management (DRM) group includes database administrators, data architects, data administrators, ETL (extract, transform, and load) programmers, and even security or compliance officers. The diagram below represents an organization’s flowchart using a decentralized model. This model includes fast response, but low sharing of knowledge, no standardization, high DBA turnover (busy on-call schedule and lack of sufficient backup).

Chart 3: Flowchart of a Decentralized Model

Source: http://download-east.oracle.com/oowsf2004/1263.pdf

The diagram below represents an organization’s flowchart using a centralized model. This model involves more sharing of knowledge between the different database resource management employees (more opportunity for career growth), a higher level of standardization, and a lower turnover.

Chart 3: Flowchart of a Centralized Model

Source: http://download-east.oracle.com/oowsf2004/1263.pdf


Educational and prior experience requirements

According to Monster.com, a computer science degree is not a requirement to work as a DBA, but more and more employers request it. Most recruiting managers would agree that DBA certifications coupled with experience in a wide variety of IT technologies, such as server technology, network technology, reporting tools, and operating systems are the most important assets to look for on a resume before even considering DBA applicants for an interview.

Certifications

Craig Mullins, director of product strategy at San Francisco-based Embarcadero Technologies makes the following comment about DBA certifications:

"The concept behind certification of DBAs is to attest that an individual is capable of performing database administration tasks and duties. This is a noble goal but the problem is that passing a test is not necessarily a viable indicator of being able to perform a complex job like DBA. Some things you just have to learn by doing. Now I am not saying that certification is useless. Indeed, taking certification tests and focusing on the questions you miss can help to point out areas of weakness upon which you can improve. But does anyone really believe that someone passing a formalized test will be as capable as someone with several years of experience as a DBA? Organizations should hire DBAs based on past experience that indicates a level of capability. Of course, someone with both experience and certification is better than someone with only one of the two."

This is true for most IT related certifications. I have encountered many new employees with MCSE (Microsoft Certified Engineer) certifications who were not able to perform well in their new job functions because they were lacking the knowledge that can only be acquired though experience. However, as Craig Mullins points, certifications are better to have along with experience, especially when applying for new positions. DBA certifications are delivered by the database management systems vendors. The most popular DBA certifications are:

- Microsoft MCDBA (Microsoft Database Administrator): it includes 4 exams. Two exams are related to database administration and design, one exam is related to a windows enterprise operating system, and one exam can be chosen from a large variety of topics. All the requirements for an MCDBA certification can be viewed at: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdba/requirements.asp.

- Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Associate: this certification is a good first step for an entry level position as a junior DBA. It includes only one exam. The exam topics are detailed at: http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=41&p_org_id=1001&lang=US&p_exam_id=1Z0_042

- Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Professional: this certification shows a more advanced level in Oracle database administration. It includes one exam as well.

Work experience and prior technical knowledge

DBAs usually come from a technical background with experience in server administration, technical support, or programming. "In my experience, the best DBAs were previously application programmers who wrote code to access databases," says Mullins. "This gives them the broad experience necessary to engage in the administration process from a knowledgeable position." Mullins also recommends that potential DBAs constantly keep up with new technologies. "Be a voracious reader, not just about data and related technologies, but about any technology, especially newer ones," recommends Mullins. "For example, XML is being closely tied to database technology today, but most DBAs, at least the good ones, read up on and experimented with XML well before it made its way to their databases."

Salaries

Monster.com provides a free salary tool allowing users to find salary ranges for each profession based on geographical location. Below is a graph representing the salary range for a database administrator in the Washington D.C. area. A junior DBA is usually represented in the lower end of the salary range while a senior-level DBA is found in the upper range of the graph.

Graph 1: Salary Range for Database Administrators in the Washington D.C. Area

Source: http://salary.monster.com

Future trends in database administration

Charles Garry, former vice president and director of the META Group's Technology Research Services organization with more than 18 years of experience in the database market, predicts a very bright future for current and future DBAs who are able and willing to adapt well to changes in technology. As with any major advances in technology, a more skilled labor force will replace low-level workers, thus giving skilled and educated DBAs a real advantage for the future. Jide Awe, founder of http://www.jidaw.com and author of the article “To DBA or not to DBA?”, states that, with an unchanged prime labor force in the U.S. for the next 20 years, an aging labor force, and an increasing dependence on information technology, the demand for DBAs will likely peak even more.

According to Craig Mullins, the amount of data grows at the rate of about 125% per year and the number of DBAs grows at a rate of about 3-5% per year as shown in the graph below.

Graph 2: DBA growth from 2000 to 2005

Source: http://www.bwdb2ug.org/Presentations/Database%20Trends.pdf


As for outsourcing, it appears that it is losing popularity. According to Noel Yuhanna, a senior industry analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, the new database management systems come with built-in automated functions which free up a lot of time and money for companies. Furthermore, growing security concerns make businesses think twice before putting their data into the hands of complete strangers.



CONCLUSION


Summary and Interpretation of Findings

Becoming a database administrator (DBA) sounds like a good career choice in today’s fast-paced information driven age. An aging labor force and a predicted flat job market for the next two decades are also contributing to the growing demand for database administrators.
The tasks performed by DBAs have evolved considerably during the past few years because of two very important factors: automation and outsourcing. DBAs are no longer required to perform the tedious functions of the past, but can concentrate on more evolved tasks, such as providing better database security, enhancing database performance, etc…
These new functions require DBAs to acquire more evolved skills through college classes, database management certification programs, and prior experience in the IT field.
Businesses also have to adapt to the changes in database administration by opting for a more centralized organizational model which provides more standardization and better communication between the different layers of database management.
Salaries vary considerably between the different types of database related positions (i.e. database architect, database developer, etc…). DBAs are usually categorized in two different levels: junior DBAs and senior DBAs. In the Washington D.C. area, a junior DBA can expect to earn a salary of about $88,000/year while a senior DBA may earn more then $120,000/year.
The future outlook for DBAs is extremely promising. Data is growing even more each day and outsourcing is becoming less popular. Talented DBAs will never have to worry about job security since they will always be in high demand.

Recommendations

If you are currently a student majoring in Information Systems or in Computer Science and are interested in a career as a Database Administrator, you should consider taking the following actions to determine whether database administration is right for you:

  • Take a class in database administration. CMIS320 from UMUC is a good class to start with. It teaches basic concepts in database administration and provides excellent hands-on experience using the Oracle database management system.
  • Get a copy of Microsoft SQL 2000 or SQL 2005 Express which are free, install it, and start experimenting with it.
  • Go to the database management systems vendors Web sites, look for the certification requirements, and see if you could get study material.
  • Try to get an internship in a company that its own database administration group.

If you are currently an employee in the IT field, such as a Systems Engineer or a Software Developer, you are probably familiar with a lot of the functions performed by Database Administrators, but would like to practice your skills and learn about more advanced concepts. The following suggestions may help you get started:

  • Talk to your supervisor and discuss your interest in learning more about database administration. Ask if you could team up with a database administrator 1 hour each day, so you could experience first hand how it feels like to work as a database administrator. From personal experience, businesses encourage cross-training and tend to promote people who have a wider range of technical skills.
  • Ask your supervisor if they would agree to send you to a database administration training class and get certified right away.
  • Start looking for junior database administrator positions and choose one which would allow technical growth within the company.

If you are a business considering implementing a new database management system or updating an existing one, I would recommend that you take the following actions:

  • Talk with different vendors about the options that would be best suited for your business and your existing environment.
  • Consider the latest version of your chosen database management system since it would include more automation options, so your database administrator would not be over-burdened with tedious repetitive tasks and would be able to dedicate more time on more important tasks, such as security, development, and efficiency.
  • Hire a senior database administrator over a junior DBA because setting up a new database management system or upgrading to a newer version requires experience, as well as the ability to identify and resolve issues in a quick and effective manner.

WORKS CITED