Four years ago in The Wall Street Journal, Marc Andreesen wrote that software is eating the world. Those words continue to resonate. But with the heavy focus on software, there is pressure on underlying database systems to remain up and running, always available and functioning with lightning speed.
In fact, database technology is only becoming more central to enterprise success.
But with cloud, on premise, hybrid environments, virtualization, increasing numbers of database instances, more varieties of database management systems than ever before, and an accepted view that IT and business must collaborate, the pressure on data professionals is growing.
According to a recent Unisphere Research survey sponsored by Ntirety, a division of HOSTING, although traditional database-caretaking tasks continue to dominate data professionals’ jobs, many respondents say that their roles are expanding to expanding to work closer with their businesses. In terms of time spent, close to half, 47%, say their time spent managing data storage is on the rise, while 46% are concentrating on capacity planning. There are a number of higher-level enterprise tasks that also rank high on the list. For example, 42% of respondents say that they are seeing closer collaboration with their business counterparts, working with end users to determine information requirements in new or modified systems.
What problems do respondents note? Forty-one percent say there is just “too much firefighting,” and not enough time for innovation at their workplaces. Another 35% say they are challenged in “managing increasing workloads/complexity.” Thirty-two percent point to “inadequate departmental support and staffing” as their greatest pain point.
Most DBAs are responsible for multiple database instances, according to another Unisphere Research study, “The Real World of the Database Administrator,” sponsored by Dell Software, almost half of the DBAs manage more than 25 database instances each, and almost 10% manage more than 100 database instances each. Using database performance solutions to diagnose issues in database infrastructure quickly and effectively can go a long way to alleviating these pressures.
Database performance solutions can help optimize performance by quickly pinpointing performance problems that affect user response times, correlate response times with other metrics, and help data professionals visualize trends and analysis of database performance over specified periods of time. With database environments constantly growing, automated capabilities are necessary to maintain the highest database performance today in order to free up data experts from routine jobs, and allow them to focus their efforts on higher value tasks that will help transform their organizations into dynamic data-driven enterprises.
HERE ARE THE WINNERS OF THE 2015 DBTA READERS' CHOICE AWARDS FOR BEST DATABASE PERFORMANCE SOLUTION