I ran across an interesting opinion piece on the CIO Magazine web site by Juan Irizarry on the expanding role of database administration. His thesis, is as follows: The field of database administration is constantly evolving and
growing. Enterprise wide applications, higher efficiency demands and
the need to align IT roles more with the business create the necessary
elements to engage DBAs into fields in the periphery of their
databases. The role of the DBA is evolving quickly from managing the
database to managing the information.
He goes on to talk about the importance of enterprise-wide applications and aligning more closely with business. These are themes I've touched upon in the past and I agree with Mr. Irizarry. Over time DBAs will need to adopt a better understanding of the content (information) within the containers (databases) that they manage.
It is no longer sufficient for DBAs to just understand "bits and bytes" and "speeds and feeds" - but they need to know what the impact of their actions are on the business. This requires not just data, but also metadata.
What do you think? What does the future hold for the DBA position?