Saturday, October 6, 2007

End of in-house DBAs?

just happened to read this interesting blog in searchoracle.com.
The article discusses about the latest evolution of "Oracle on demand" service and its potential impact (or end) of in-house DBAs

"....members revealed a surprisingly high 37% of you currently use hosted apps.

Does that concern you DBAs? Is this the beginning of the end of the in-house DBA?

For managers, Oracle’s pitch is compelling:

With more than 1.7 million users, including enterprise customers with the most rigorous requirements, Oracle On Demand simplifies enterprise computing by reducing the need to handle software upgrades, patches, and the day-to-day maintenance required to keep customer solutions available and secure.

. . . not to mention a lower TCO, including no six-figure salaries to those pesky senior DBAs. It’s the “best of all worlds” as the Oracle site melodramatically puts it.

"

and finally it posts the question

"Do you think that Oracle DBAs’ days are numbered because of the growth of On Demand?"

that was really interesting to think about. I don't personally foresee something like this to become a successful strategy in at least the next 4-5 years, unless Oracle changes its staff/team and strategy. Forget about data being hosted, currently ask anyone who has to deal with metalink folks.. It sometimes gives such a bad taste, you even wonder how the heck these guys managed to find a job in Oracle..

On the other hand, having a alternative is good for the company, as I have seen many DBAs who are not technically competent but simply want to enforce whatever be their principles. So this alternatives would eventually make them realize they are not the super-bosses anymore to say& act the way they wanted. CEO/CTO now has an option to bypass such egoistic persons in their companies.