As a follow up to my tweet, I stand by my belief that DevOps does not make administrators obsolete. I include Database Administrators in my statement. The core point of embracing DevOps is to determine what is repeatable and see if you can automate it. Why?

• You’re trying to move faster.
• You’re trying to reduce mistakes due to human error.
• You’re trying to free up time of knowledge workers to work on more important things.

Let’s look at the DBA. Every time a DBA has to manually run a script, what is the DBA not doing? The DBA isn’t monitoring performance. The DBA isn’t checking code to see if it can be improved. A DBA isn’t reviewing audit exceptions that have hopefully been reported by an automated check. Think about the typical tasks a DBA has to do every time a new script is ready for modifying the database:

1. Check out the new script from source control.
2. Back up the database (possibly).
3. Execute the script.
4. Verify the results of the script.
5. Report back that the script has been run.
6. Back up the database again (possibly).

These steps, in and of themselves, aren’t hard. We expect a DBA to bring a professional eye to minimize mistakes, but mistakes do still happen (guilty as charged). What if all of that was automated? Then the DBA wouldn’t have to spend the time running through each step. As a result, the DBA is free to do so much more. The DBA can become a key player rather than someone who just executes code. That means a DBA has more time to show his or her importance to the organization. We talk about career security. Becoming a stronger knowledge worker helps move us towards that.

Which is why I say DevOps doesn’t make admins obsolete. It makes the ones who embrace it for what it is potentially more valuable to their current and future organizations.