Future Waves in Database Tech

Introduction

Database administration is always striving to change for the better. As organizations continue to rely on the information they gather from customer profiles, product inventories, and more, they are also beginning to get a glimpse of the untapped potential of what’s in store for database administrators (DBAs) and the database management systems (DBMSs) that they manage. Let’s take a glimpse of the possibilities of some future waves in database tech.

1. Automation will speed up the completion of maintenance tasks

Maintenance automation isn’t new, but in the years ahead, how tasks are accomplished will be different than today and in a good way. In the recent past, some early adopters have already put in place automating maintenance functions for their on-site databases.

In upcoming years, traditional on-site maintenance and the cloud-based maintenance will have a standoff. They’ll compete with one another for the position of the preferred king of choice for database management. In the end, the cloud deployments will win as it becomes the obvious choice of hands-free maintenance automation for businesses of all sizes.

During this time, the benefits will become widely known:
Data management and usage becomes easier to accomplish with minimal involvement Organizations customize their data to their specific needs and this makes it more valuable * Career advancement and new jobs are created for DBAs, data engineers, and data scientists who specialize in managing, understanding and deciphering cloud-based datasets

Currently, the career outlook for DBAs and related fields is growing. Moving forward in the future waves of database tech, this trend will continue.

2. Securing databases will be just as important as deploying them

Unfortunately, many organizations think of security as an afterthought. They still have a “It won’t happen to us” mentality. In the future, that will change–not because it’s the right to do. The risk is far too great to not protect customers’ data, and proprietary data, and data on product inventories’. There’s too much to lose, especially customers’ trust, and that is very hard to regain after a security breach. Security incidents will increase by 100 times as much as today by the year 2025 according to a recent study.

Manual human intervention isn’t enough. We have the ability to use autonomous monitoring which is defined in technological terms: the ability for a device or machine to monitor self-sufficiently without continuous human direction.

In the future waves of tech, autonomous auditing and monitoring will be seen as a standard practice for singling out database threats and issues such as configuration changes. Matter of fact, autonomous monitoring can be programmed to require prior approval before any modification is made. Notifications are a basic alert function option of autonomous monitoring as well. All of these benefits relate to machine learning, which is a machine’s ability to learn how to recognize threats and stop them in their tracks before they cause damage to a database.

3. Availability, performance, and reliability standards will become more strict

With autonomous monitoring and auditing comes the need for higher standards for database processes associated with availability, performance, and reliability. An autonomous database, for instance, will be expected to automatically apply patches and fixes seamlessly the instant security holes are found.

Organizations will learn to expect the machine learning capabilities of an autonomous database to be the technology assistant. After its programmed, it will be able to think for itself, so to speak, and get things done. The result is a boosted, tighter security environment, and a speedier uptime with low to no downtime.

All of these changes will require higher standards as a norm for how organizations run their businesses out of a cloud or by traditional means. An important change for all will be to enact a no-tolerance policy on security threats. Staff-based mistakes will no longer be accepted as a viable excuse due to the accessible solution of autonomous auditing and monitoring.

Having said that, the position of the DBA will not be outlived by machine learning because organizations need them to verify the fixes of patches, packs, and audits, and then, if necessary, make the required adjustments to the man-made machines on which their employers rely.

4. Data volume will keep growing at a fast pace

In the future waves of tech, data volume becomes a reflection of the many ways available to collect it. For example, social media isn’t going anywhere. More organizations that haven’t dabbled in social media consistently, will do so in the years ahead. Right now, new social media options are popping up on a daily basis. Video communication is growing as well. Reaching out to prospects and existing customers isn’t like it was a decade ago, and in the future waves of tech, it won’t be exactly like it is today 10 years from now.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the connectivity extension where a variety of devices connects to the internet to communicate with other devices. In the future wave of tech, IoT will continue to grow resulting in more businesses wanting to track that data to take their profits to the next level.

Nonetheless, DBAs must think futuristically or else be left behind. That mindset is in line with the main goal of many DBAs responsible for managing small, medium, or large databases. They want to handle DBMSs that run efficiently in hours instead of weeks.

5. Automated database provisioning capabilities will expand

In the future waves of tech, manual provisioning will change drastically. While it’s true that automated database provisioning is growing in popularity, we’re not there yet.

DBAs still manually provision their organization’s databases. That is, they create databases, assign users, update patches–all by hand! A whopping 95 percent of them do those tasks today.

Automated database provisioning is becoming more popular. It will continue to bring performance improvements with each new phase. One such enhancement is indexing that occurs automatically. Advancements will make automated provisioning more desirable and easier for DBAs to implement.

Conclusion

The future waves database tech indicate that change is on the way and it’s big. Maintenance automation and database security will greatly impact the productivity of DBAs. Performance, availability, and reliability standards will increase and hold organziations accountable in the years to come. The accelerated growth of data volume, automated database provisioning, and machine learning will also shape the discipline of database management. That’s what we think.

Your turn. What excites you about the future waves database tech for the upcoming years?