Over the weekend I saw a few tweets about the role of the DBA. These tweets (and corresponding blog posts) come around once every so often and are generally along the lines of “Is the DBA role dead?” (or something to that ilk).

Here’s my two cents on the matter, the DBA role is nor ever will be dead.

However that doesn’t mean that I don’t think the role will change. It’s definitely changing, DBA roles twenty years from now will be very different just as DBA roles twenty years ago are very different to what they are now.

And that’s a good thing right? Who wants to be doing exactly the same thing for their entire careers?

I think DBAs are probably one of the best IT roles to cope with change. We have to learn a broad spectrum of skills, from system administration to database development which allows us to move into other areas as focuses change.

With all the new technologies that are coming out we have options to specialise in Data Science or even say, Linux administration as our priorities shift away from the traditional backup/restore, query tuning etc. tasks.

I personally think it’s the most exciting time to be a DBA and I look forward to the changes of my role continuing.

Have a good week!