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December 4, 2000

Database Administrators: A Precious Commodity

Illustration by Gerard Dubois

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Relational database-management systems: The very name sounds foreboding. Indeed, database management is as complex as it sounds, requiring skilled help and constant attention. Database vendors keep adding features intended to make the systems easier to manage. But as operational databases grow in size and complexity, administrative tools only go so far.

InformationWeek Research asked IT managers to rank the hurdles they face in executing database-management strategies. Topping the list were technical issues, such as ease of administration and database compatibility with other enterprise software, and problems hiring enough qualified programmers and database administrators.

When database experts can be found, says Gartner Group analyst Betsy Burton, they're expensive. Database administrators with Oracle-specific skills are in particularly short supply, which is even causing some potential customers to consider other databases, Burton says. "Can you imagine being a company in Kansas and having to hire a database administrator for Oracle?"

In all, 58% of the IT managers surveyed by InformationWeek Research cited ease of database administration and difficulty recruiting qualified database administrators as their toughest problems. The issues are related: Database programming is labor intensive, and only some database functions can be automated.

"None of them are very easy to use," says Paul Vossbrinck, an application project manager consultant who works at GE Capital Corp.'s treasury operations in Stamford, Conn. GE Capital uses database software from Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase for various operations. Vossbrinck would like to see administrative functions in databases become more automated. "When you're moving $14 billion a day, you don't have time for any of that propeller-head stuff," he says.

The challenge of database compatibility with other enterprise applications was cited by 57% of those surveyed. Finding qualified programmers, mentioned by 51%, rounded out the top issues. The need for low latency, object and component capabilities, and two-phase commit were also cited as big challenges, but by a smaller percentage of respondents.

Broadly speaking, companies of all sizes face the same problems when it comes to executing database-management strategies, although to differing degrees. The need for database compatibility with other enterprise applications was the top issue (cited by 64% of respondents) among large companies, defined as those with annual revenue of $1 billion or more. Small (less than $100 million in revenue) and midsize (revenue between $100 million and $1 billion) companies, on the other hand, put ease-of-administration and hiring database administrators at the top of their lists of challenges.