Being the heart of your business, your databases house all the critical data of your entire organization; so it’s imperative to keep them well-managed by having the right database management skills.  If there are missteps or holes in your database management, these can have a detrimental impact on your entire business. Well-organized and efficiently-run databases are crucial to your daily operations, as well as to the future growth and overall success of your organization.  

What Top 3 Skills are Most Critical for Database Management?

The skills a database administrator must possess are absolutely critical in facilitating the health, availability, and performance of a database. So, what are the critical database management skills a business requires in order to run their operations with power and efficiency?  

Proficiency, Understanding, and Training

Proficiency in implementing and managing High Availability Database Architectures is a fundamental skill to have.  Having a keen understanding of the underlying workings of a database server while training in the newer technology options are foundational to the health of a database.  Having these qualities gives a DBA the ability to maintain indexes and statistics for database performance, as well as to readily troubleshoot and have control over the day-to-day management of database systems.  These core skills allow for DBAs to accurately advise incremental changes for better performance and reliability. 

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is beginning to expand in the realm of database management.  It’s a collection of strategies and tools used for the purposes of analyzing business information.  With the continuous growth of BI-based projects among databases, it’s important for DBAs to have continuous learning and stay on top of their database management with the latest BI tools; as companies are frequently looking for guidance with BI tools (and related data structures and strategies) for managing their databases. 

• Traditional BI Tools

For traditional relational databases, it’s important for DBAs to be proficient in the traditional BI Tools, since much of the data analysis of databases is performed with these. Traditional BI tools are dedicated to working with structured data from a single source, and while the demand for these tools decreases, the need for functional reporting on day-to-day business operations remains.  

• Newer Open Source BI Tools

A number of open source projects have emerged to bridge the gap between traditional BI tools.  The newer open source BI tools are beginning to see more growth in database management, therefore it’s important for DBAs to keep up with the evolution and expansion of these tools.  Having the knowledge of these open source BI tools gives DBAs the ability to pull together all types of data to create reports across multiple sources, rather than from traditional databases alone. This also relates to the demand of a modern DBA needing to stretch beyond the “blocking and tackling” of managing a database (i.e. monitoring, back-ups, etc.).  With DBAs having more strategic and relevant capabilities, organizations are able to rely on their skills to obtain greater insights and intelligence from the vast data they possess in myriad systems.

Managing Databases in the Cloud

Since more companies are beginning to move to the Cloud, knowing how to successfully manage databases in the Cloud is an essential skill for DBAs to obtain.  With AWS and Azure being the industry’s leading Cloud companies, having proficiency in AWS and Azure database management and migrations will be the two most sought after skills in the near future. It’s likely that most companies will begin to adopt a hybrid environment with servers in the cloud, as well as a local data center.  Experience and training for managing database system performance, reliability, and availability in a hybrid environment is a challenging skill to develop but will be well worth acquiring for the near future.  

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With your databases being the heart of your business, it’s vital that you have experienced and skilled database administrators who are dedicated to the daily management and optimization of your databases.  

Getting the most value out of your database management strategy while having the skills your organization needs is key to your business’s growth and success.  From hiring an in-house DBA to a consultant, or partnering up with a Managed Service Provider, you have choices when it comes to the right database support option for your business.  

That’s why we produced this quick tool to help companies better understand their return on investment with the top database support options available to them.  Download the Database ROI Resource sheet to see how you can make the smartest investment with your database management support.  

For further database support options and insights, be sure to check out our Database Support Cheat Sheet.