Career path for a DBA

A person who wants to be a DBA has to follow a strenuous career path where he gains knowledge from his experience, by being a database developer at the beginning and later climbing the ladder to a DBA.

The core skill sets that a DBA should possesses are a complete understanding of the concepts of the database architecture like Tables, View, Queries, Primary and Foreign Keys concepts along with advanced knowledge of concepts like partitions, tablespaces,  procedures and business objects, etc.

The DBA should have the ability to talk to the database through query languages like SQL and PL/SQL. To attain success a DBA should also have the knowledge of the complete Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) along with some software programming skills.

The most popular database software out there are fairly well-known-Oracle, MS SQL Server, IBM DB2 from the commercial space, and MySQ and PostGreSQL from the Open Source arena. You must gain expertise in any of these databases.

Finally, an understanding of shell scripting in Windows NT and UNIX, and common scripting languages and Web skills (Java, HTML, etc.) are also additional skills that can help you land a lucrative position as a DBA.

Similarly, experienced DBA professionals, who already have expertise in handling database implementation projects, can further enhance their skill sets by learning the frameworks for SOA or by venturing into the ERP domain by learning application solutions like Oracle Apps.

New Opportunities for DBA

Previously, a DBA was someone who simply managed database systems, but those systems now include application and Web servers as well, and are integrated with application development language, for example Oracle Applications database server.

Above that enterprises are now moving towards automation by deploying business applications like ERP, CRM, etc. and DBAs are now expected to perform from above their core capabilities towards these automation applications as well.

The database solutions themselves have automated several of the functions that a DBA used to perform, now with such tools to aid himself, a DBA is less focused on performance tuning, database migrations, backups and upgrades and is more focused on matters like planning and implementing database virtualization and managing the ever-increasing volume of data at various layers of IT stack. Also with the emergence of new trends like SOA and data warehousing, a DBA is all set to extend his expertise to the new work domains. 

Following are some of the newer areas where a DBA has opportunities to foray into:-

SOA:
Service Oriented Architecture involves all levels of the IT workforce, right from developers to business process planners. So how could database professionals be left out? When an organization plans for a SOA implementation, the enterprise architects work with business experts to identify services that will be aligned with the needs of the organization and to be provided through an application. A DBA, who has worked for the organization's database implementation, very well knows the process that is dependent on the database and the business knowledge of those processes. Thus, if he can have the understanding of the SOA framework he can provide the support for identifying the enterprise's business processes for aligning them with the applications and optimizing the database performance for such processes.

Automation:
Enterprises are moving towards ERP and CRM applications and that has been a reason for the increased demands for DBA professionals. These applications being data-centric, a DBA who has the functional domain knowledge of the business can take on the responsibility to maintain the database as well as the enterprise application. For example an Oracle DBA who upgrades his knowledge for understanding the Oracle Apps for the business functions for his organization, can become an Oracle Apps ERP consultant for the organization. 

Agile DBA:
Agile development has been a recent trend, similarly, in the database domain Agile DBA term has sprung up. An Agile DBA is a person who is involved with the creation and evolution of the data aspects of one or more applications. Apart from the traditional skills like database programming, database administration, data testing and modeling, an Agile DBA must have the understanding of all the aspects of the software process. They should also have the development skills as they will be working in collaboration with the developers for better interactivity between the application and the database. Agile DBAs will also need to work with application developers to model their data needs, working with UML-based artifacts such class diagrams with some project teams and conceptual data models with other teams.  Agile DBAs will work with application developers to write and test database code such as stored procedures, data-oriented code within applications that interacts with their data sources, and even aid in mapping the application schema to the data schema.

DW and BI:
A DBA can upgrade his skills to become a Data Warehouse expert for providing the data mining duties and designing the optimal database structures that will house the enterprises archived database that will be used for Business Intelligence purpose. The data warehouse works as decision making system that contains the enterprise's historical data. The DBA will have to extend his capabilities to design a warehouse that will then be used for Business Intelligence. The data warehouse DBA must also understand predictive modeling and probability analysis. He should also know the company business, the data warehouse architecture and also be an expert in the SQL language. The DBAs have to make themselves familiar with the BI tools also so as to incorporate those applications with the data warehouse.

Certifications:
For a DBA it is always necessary to be abreast with the latest trends in the database domain and also be quiet adept with the database administration solution that he works upon. Though the vendors keep bringing new features into the database solutions, it is always advantageous for a DBA to hold certifications that will authenticate his knowledge skill and also enhance his chances while any recruitment process. There are various certifications available; each vendor has their own certification exams at various levels. These levels extend from beginners to the expert level. Though certifications cannot be compensated with the experience a DBA possess through his various database implementations projects he undertook during his career.

As the roles of the DBAs are also evolving, there are certifications available for DBAs who are venturing into new domain, say Data warehousing or Applications management.  The growth prospects of DBAs is very high, and since their knowledge is much more than developers and other functional people in the IT industry, they are the one who are most preferred to lead the implementation projects and also become the head of IT in enterprises. Though in every industry segment the role of DBA differs, but their requirements increase day by day as the IT industry progresses.

For a detailed list of certifications, please refer to the Careers story on DBAs of PCQuest July'08 issue.