If you wish to be a successful DBA for a long period of
time, you will have to keep up-to-date on all kinds of technology — both
database-related and other.
Of course, as a DBA, your first course of action should
be to be aware of all of the features and functions available in the DBMSs in
use at your site — at least at a high level, but preferably in depth. Read the
vendor literature on future releases as it becomes available to prepare for new
functionality before you install and migrate to new DBMS releases. The sooner
you know about new bells and whistles, the better equipped you will be to
prepare new procedures and adopt new policies to support the new features.
Keep up-to-date on technology in general, too. For example, DBAs
should understand new data-related technologies such as NoSQL, Hadoop, and
predictive analytics, but also other newer technologies that interact with
database systems. Don’t ignore industry and technology trends simply because
you cannot immediately think of a database-related impact. Many
non-database-related “things” (for example, XML) eventually find their way into
DBMS software and database applications.
Keep up-to-date on industry standards — particularly those that
impact database technology such as the SQL standard. Understanding these
standards before the new features they engender have been incorporated into
your DBMS will give you an edge in their management. DBMS vendors try to
support industry standards, and many features find their way into the DBMS
because of their adoption of an industry standard.
As we've already discussed in this series, one way of keeping
up-to-date is by attending local and national user groups. The presentations
delivered at these forums provide useful education. Even more important,
though, is the chance to network with other DBAs to share experiences and learn
from each other’s projects.
Through judicious use of the Internet and the Web, it is easier
than ever before for DBAs to keep up-to-date. Dozens of useful and informative
Web sites provide discussion forums, script libraries, articles, manuals, and
how-to documents. Consult my web site at http://www.craigsmullins.com/rellinks.html
for a regularly-updated list of DBMS,
data, and database-related Web resources.
Remember, though, this is just a starting point. There are
countless ways that you can keep-up-to-date on technology. Use every avenue at
your disposal to do so, or risk becoming obsolete.
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