The Cloud Changing the Role of the Database Administrator

Today on TIP: Do You Need a DBA for Databases in the Cloud?, The Cloud: How to Validate Data Mining Models, GigaSpaces Launches Real-Time Analytics Platform for Big Data Apps, Swimming with Sharks in the IT Fish Tank, Ellison: Oracle Out to Beat IBM in High-end Server Arena, and Dell Rolls Out ARM-Based Copper Servers to Select Customers.

With the advent of cloud computing, IT staff spends a lot less time today running down and fixing hardware  problems than they used to. So wouldn't you expect the same type of benefits when moving databases to the cloud?

In his latest feature for Tom's IT Pro, IT author, systems architect and consultant Dan Sullivan asks the following question with that in mind: "Do You Need a DBA for Databases in the Cloud?" The answer, he writes, is yes.

That's the short answer, however. The long answer, which Dan goes into in his article, is that the role of the database administrator will change in what Dan calls "Cloud Era."

"Running your database in the cloud, either on IaaS or PaaS services, will relieve your DBA of some of the typical tasks he or she has dealt with over the year," Dan notes. "Fortunately for them, there is still plenty to do.  The role of DBAs will shift up the value chain from infrastructure oriented tasks to application analysis and support tasks."

See here to get the full story on the changing role of DBAs in the Cloud Era.

In the latest post to his Tom's IT Pro The Silver Lining blog, Dan talks about how the cloud has made data mining accessible to everyone. While he doesn't have an issue with per data mining as service per se, there are potential problems organizations can run into with that approach to analytics.

"I am more concerned with marketing material that makes data mining sound like a “just add water” solution to your analytics problems," Dan writes. "Data mining is a practice built on algorithms for building models and techniques for evaluating those models. It's easy to talk about the former and forget about the latter. Just because a data mining algorithm spits out a model doesn't mean it's a good model for your needs."

Taking that into consideration, Dan describe things you can do to validate your data mining models in his article.

Some additional recent articles on Tom's IT Pro:

• GigaSpaces Launches Real-Time Analytics Platform for Big Data Apps

Assemble real-time analytics for systems that run through substantial amounts of data with XAP 9.0.

• Swimming with Sharks in the IT Fish Tank

Fish tanks one of the better analogies for corporate IT management. 

• Ellison: Oracle Out to Beat IBM in High-end Server Arena

Oracle is ready to take the crown from IBM. 

• Dell Rolls Out ARM-Based Copper Servers to Select Customers

Dell ventures away from Intel for the second time ever.

James Alan Miller is Managing Editor of Tom's IT Pro. He is a veteran technology journalist with over seventeen years of experience creating and developing magazine and online content. Founding editor of numerous business and enterprise computing sites at the internet.com network, James headed up the After Hours section at PC Magazine, as well as hardware and software sections of various Windows publications.

See here for all Tom's IT Pro articles written by James.