The amount of time it takes a Database Administrator (DBA) to keep database farms up and running is extensive. We expect them to apply requested changes, preferably “yesterday”. Not to mention the long provisioning timelines, due to lack of automation. Therefore it is no surprise a DBA can easily become overwhelmed by requests coming from various directions like; app users, developers, system administrators.
To manage and deploy new database environments, a senior DBA is usually required to be available for multiple projects. And since the senior DBAs often oversee various projects, it means that deployments will stack up. The same applies to rapid decommissioning of unused environments. The Life Cycle Management (LCM) process that controls this, isn’t something ‘off the shelf’. It must be developed and implemented according to the enterprise’s requirements and not collide with other LCM plans of, not only, database software, but also the operating systems and hardware on which it is running.
The maze of overview, security and compliance
To ensure proper monitoring and management of database environments, third party software is a must. This is often expensive and requires additional infrastructure, external management and administration. Not to mention that the monitoring tools have to be heavily customized. They require custom written monitoring- and auditing scripts, which brings nothing more than complexity and a lot of extra work, as DBAs are forced to create their own scripts, which are time consuming and not flexible to environment changes.
Then there is the security aspect of a DBAs job; Data protection – with disaster recovery -, high availability and backup options always require careful planning and advanced design to ensure no single point of failure and to avoid high implementation and licensing costs. After all, many environments are designed by various architects, using various techniques, platforms and standards. That brings complexity to the infrastructure, as well as a non-uniform implementation of various environments. In other words, it creates a lot of extra work for a senior DBA.
We also see that DBAs are struggling with the numerous backup- and restore procedures, disaster recovery scenarios and high availability configurations, which are often inconsistent. In cooperation with security departments, the security around the database environments must be built from scratch. This takes a lot of time and effort before all security regulations are implemented and environments become compliant with internal policies and standards. This means that an unnecessary workload for the DBA is created.
Let’s give our DBA’s a helping hand
To improve agility in the organisation, it is safe to say that the operational workload of the DBA needs to be drastically decreased. If you would like to act faster on requests and changes and have a better overview of your environments, processes and policies, a DBAs workload needs to be automated. Simtech can provide that helping hand.
On March 12 we are launching a new DBaaS platform; a unique combination of Infrastructure as a Service, API based architecture, automatic Database Provisioning and License Compliance Management. It automates large amounts of DBA’s current ‘regular’ tasks: complete automation of deploying and decommissioning database environments and full overview and management of deployed environments and its security and compliance aspects. Project DBAs can then deploy environments at their own pace, according to the project plan and sprints, making the company even more agile, without waiting weeks or even months.
On March 12, the Simtech DBaaS Private Cloud will be officially launched during the Oracle Cloud Day 2019. If you would like to be part of this and be among the first to see how it can help your DBA’s and how it can help your company be as agile as possible, then come and join us. Or contact us, so we can meet with you to tell you all about it.
