There has been a serious concern in the market with announcement of Oracle Autonomous database 18c release. Should this be considered as a threat to Oracle DBA’s roles in the market? Let us gather facts available on the Oracle web to understand what exactly this is going to be and focus on skill improvements accordingly. Oracle 18c is nothing different but Oracle 12.2.0.2, the name is given against the year 2018 in which it is scheduled to release.
Referring to the primary notes by Oracle CTO Larry Ellison and https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/oow17-oracle-autonomous-database-100217.html there are really interesting findings which will give us facts on what is the Oracle’s focus behind Oracle 18c.
The key advantages with release of Oracle 18c are:
- No Human Labor
- No Human Error
- No Manual Performance Tuning
- Self-Driving
- Self-Scalable
- Self-Repairing
Why these requirements are much needed without which there is a great impact? Definitely in Cloud, where automation is the key success in any cloud services like PaaS, SaaS or IaaS. Oracle Cloud has already incorporated database as a service for 11gR2 and 12cR1/2 versions, there must be automations with the help of scripts or any other means implemented already to enable DIY (Do It Yourself) generic activities by a single click like configuring backups, schedule maintenances, patches etc.
The major challenge I could see is to develop third party software programs to automate these generic tasks on web to configure as per requirements which are dynamic for each client. I see that Oracle is solving this challenge with the release of 18c with all these automations available inherit in the database software.
That gives us a clear vision of why Oracle needs to bring up these automations within Oracle Database Software – To get cloud services go smooth and self-containable. So Oracle 18c is for cloud not for on-premise.
Now, how does this effect the Oracle DBA’s?
Getting back to toes of Oracle version releases so far, there has been improvements and automations at every stage. Let us see few –
Oracle 9i and 10g enhancements:
- Automatic Diagnostic Monitoring
- Automatic Workload Repository
- Automatic UNDO tablespaces …
Oracle 11g & 12c enhancements:
- Automatic Memory Management
- Automatic SQL Tuning
- Automatic Workload Replay
- Automatic Storage Indexes
- Automatic capture of SQL Monitor …
So, automations have not been something new in the releases of Oracle database but this version(18c) of database have got much more automations to enable best cloud based services.
Is this really a threat to DBA’s? No, not at all. How?
- Any mid/large enterprises who have already invested on infrastructure on premise would not prefer to choose cloud as ROI will not be met. So could might not be the options applicable to large enterprises who have their own infrastructure managed within.
- Moving all existing clients to cloud is not easy and straight forward and would take great effort and time to happen.
- Though the aim of Oracle Cloud services is to get every customer on cloud, but there are lot of challenges involved. Yes, possibility is with private cloud which can be in clients own premise but infra maintained by Oracle.
One simple example I could relate here is: AMM – Automatic Memory Management introduced in Oracle 11g. In reality how many applications support this configuration? Still, DBA is the one who makes decision and fix the issues. So, Automations are never a threat to DBA.
In fact, there is a lot of scope for Oracle DBA’s now – On-Cloud and On-Premise management. But the approach would change when you should deal with database on cloud, as there would be much of generic activities to just configure on web and leave Oracle to take care. On-premise management would remain the same as is.
To manage databases on cloud, you will need to enhance your skills a bit with any of the cloud service providers in the market like:
- Oracle Cloud
- Amazon Web Services
- Google Cloud …
Cloud skill is an add-on to your existing DBA skill. Even today I believe that my blog “Why I Love to be an Oracle DBA?” still remains good and hope you feel the same too J
Conclusion:
- Oracle DBA roles are not in risk, instead demand is going to increase.
- You would concentrate more on advanced activities in relation with business than on generic activities when its cloud based management.
- A professional with core DBA and cloud skills will have great scope going forward. So plan to upgrade your skills with 12.2.0.2 and with cloud management.
Disclaimer: Content in the blog is based on sources from Oracle and my personal thoughts and experiences. Please feel free to add supporting facts to our readers in comments.
