(Oracle) DBA and Other Skills Needed in 2020

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
(Oracle) DBA Skills to Have, to Obtain &
to Nurture – The 2019 / 2020 Edition
Markus Michalewicz, Senior Director of Product Management,
Database High Availability & Scalability Solutions, ST Development
October 2nd, 2019
Markus.Michalewicz@oracle.com
@OracleRACpm
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markusmichalewicz
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz

Safe Harbor Statement
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for
information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon
in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, timing, and pricing of any
features or functionality described for Oracle’s products may change and remains at the
sole discretion of Oracle Corporation.
3

Safe Harbor Statement
The following are my own opinions only.
4

Program Agenda
Soft Skills
The Changing Role of the DBA
Technical Skills
Direction & Action
1
2
3
4
5

Program Agenda
Soft Skills
Technical Skills
Direction & Action
1
2
3
4
6

Must Have: Communication Skills
• You communicate every day!
– You talk to colleagues
– You write emails / texts
– You present a solution
– You discuss your ideas
– You apply for new jobs
• Make sure that you communicate the best you can.
– “Listening” is an important part of good communication skills – in 2018:
https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/the-skills-companies-need-most-in-2018--and-the-courses-to-get-t
7

Must Have in 2019: A Certain Communication Skill
• You communicate every day!
– Now persuade
– Having a great product, a great platform or a great concept is one thing,
• but the key is persuading people to buy into it.
• Make sure that you communicate the best you can.
– “Persuasion” is the second most important soft skill in 2019 according to:
https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/the-skills-companies-need-most-in-2019--and-how-to-learn-them
8

Obtain: A Set of Strong Skills (Identify your Strengths)
• Build on what you can do (best)!
– Very few people can do “everything”.
• Obtaining a completely new set of skill gets harder later in life.
– Unless you are starting your career, identify your strengths and build on them.
• Extend your skill set into areas you are interested in.
– Easiest way is to look into skills related to those that you already have.
9

Maintain: Do What You Like Doing
• Find areas which interest you / that you like and stick with them!
– This does not mean you have to stay with one thing only.
• Doing what you like
– Automatically motivates
– Makes you focus on details
– Makes you enjoy your work
• Consequently makes you better in what you do.
10
J

Adjust According to Your Stage of Life
• Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba.com) categorizes 5 career stages:
https://youtu.be/MwixREUJOI0?t=55 (2018) / https://youtu.be/lVo_UVaK9os (2016)
• In your twenties (20+)
– Join a good company to learn from a good boss.
• In your thirties (30+)
– If you want to try to be an entrepreneur, try it!
• In your forties (40+)
– Do something that you are good at.
• In your fifties (50+)
– Spend time training and developing young people.
• In your sixties (60+)
– Harvest the fruits of your labor and play with your grandkids.
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20
50
60
40
30
Adjust as
needed
Lead the
change

Program Agenda
Soft Skills
Technical Skills
Direction & Action
1
2
3
4
12

DevOps are Taking over (Parts of) the DBA Work
• DBAs have always been “in the middle” between
– Storage admins
– Network admins
– App developers
• “Demarcation lines” are fading with DevOps taking more control.
• DBA roles to adopt to become part of the DevOPs strategy.
13
Skills
Dev
OP
DBA

72% of IT Budget is spent on Generic
Maintenance tasks vs Innovation
ComputerWorld
14
85% of security breaches occurred
after the CVE was published
DB Maestro
91% experience unplanned data
center outages
Healthcare IT News
DBAs Spend More Time on Maintenance vs. Innovation
Security ReliabilityMaintenance
85% 91%72%

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 15
The Cloud is Changing the DBA’s Work
ORACLE
AUTONOMOUS
DATABASE
ReliabilityMaintenance
91%72%

Traditionally DBA Responsibilities
• Tasks Specific to Business and Innovation
– Architecture, planning, data modeling
– Data security and lifecycle management
– Application related tuning
– End-to-End service level management
• Maintenance Tasks
– Configuration and tuning of systems, network, storage
– Database provisioning, patching
– Database backups, H/A, disaster recovery
– Database optimization
Value Scale
Innovation
Maintenance

Giving the DBA more time to Innovate and Improve the business
Autonomous Database Removes Generic Tasks
• Tasks Specific to Business and Innovation
– Architecture, planning, data modeling
– Data security and lifecycle management
– Application related tuning
– End-to-End service level management
• Maintenance Tasks
– Configuration and tuning of systems, network, storage
– Database provisioning, patching
– Database backups, H/A, disaster recovery
– Database optimization
Value Scale
Innovation
Maintenance

Make sure that you communicate
– your new role to your boss –
the best you can
18
Look into related skills
to those that you already have
Find areas which interest you
Must Have (2018/’19): The Soft Skills to Adapt to New Roles
J

Program Agenda
Soft Skills
Technical Skills
Direction & Action
1
2
3
4
19

Cloud (tools);
not only for install, patch & upgrade
20
Networking skills Security skills
Must Have 2019: (Basic) Cloud Skills

Must Have: Basic Cloud Skills
• Unlike some other technologies, the cloud(s) is (are) here to last
– Some hype-technologies have disappeared over time.
– Multiple players in one market make choices difficult (e.g. NoSQL DBs)
• Must learn new tools and cloud architectures
– Different cloud infrastructures come with their own tooling and architectures.
– For DBaaS offerings tools enable and limit what one can do. Need to know what’s under the covers.
• Need to understand networking
– The only way to reach a database in the cloud is the network.
– Network topologies differ between clouds (& for the client).
• Need to secure the data at all times
– Security implementations differ between cloud infrastructures.
– In Oracle’s Autonomous Database most security is managed for you.
21

Data Modeling
Architecture / “data wrangler”
22
Data Security
Data classification /
Data lifecycle management
Application Tuning
SQL tuning / connection mgmt.
Obtain: Autonomous Database & Cloud Skills

Benefits:
• A sound data model
– simplifies database tuning
– Improves time to market
– Reduces costs & project
creep
• Opportunity to spend
more time focused on
architecting a solution.
Prepare:
• Take advantage of tools
– E.g. Oracle SQL Developer
Data Modeler - a free
diagramming and data
modeling tool:
• For logical & relational
modeling, versioning, DDL
Generation, Compare & Synch
– Reverse Engineer:
• Existing Schemas , DDLs
(not just Oracle)
– Publish your diagrams and
data dictionaries
• HTML, PDF, SVG or database
reporting repository
23
Extend:
• Most popular data format for
new web applications is JSON
• Storing JSON documents in the
database greatly simplifies
application development as
the same schema-less data
representation can be use in
Application and the Database
• Just because the schema is
now in a JSON document,
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t
have a entity model
• Don’t be afraid to bring
modeling to the “wild west”
of JSON
Obtain: Data Modeling Skills

Security is a shared
responsibility:
– Security Managed by Oracle:
• Network security and threat
detection
• Strong platform security
• Automatic database patches
• Strict administrative control
• Data encryption by default
Prepare 1:
• Identify your assets
– Know what data you have
and where
• Secure all databases
– Make sure that there are no
insecure settings, default
passwords etc.
– Remove unnecessary
privileges
– Determine what data should
be masked in dev and test
environments
– Determine what data should
be redacted or dynamically
masked in applications
24
Prepare 2:
• Encrypt your data
• All cloud services encrypt
data
• Backup your data
• Make sure you can recover
from backups
• Work with application
development
• See if Redaction is
applicable to current
applications
Obtain: Data Security Skills for ADB

Benefits:
• Same rules apply!
– Take the time to understand
the business process and
what’s important
• No point improving a SQL
statement if no one cares
that it takes an hour
– Connection management is
just as important in the
cloud
• Having thousands of
connects logging on
and off the database every
second won’t scale
Prepare:
• Get familiar with new
functionality in the latest
versions of the database
that will improve end-user
experiences
– Database In-Memory
– Real-Time Materialized Views
– JSON support
– Approximate Analytic Queries
– REST APIs
– Etc
25
Extend:
• DBAs should work more
closely with developers to
help improve the
end-user experience
• Advocates for the features and
functionality that are in the
database that can improve the
agility of development teams
– Stop developers from re-
inventing the wheel in their
application code
• Provide APIs to help
developers get to the data they
need quickly and efficiently
Obtain: Application Tuning Skills

Maintain: Transferable On-Premises Skills
• Oracle Database, RAC, Data Guard, Sharding & MAA skills
– All these technologies are offered on multiple platforms.
• Tuning skills
– Infrastructure and DB tuning will be less required, but skills remain useful.
• Troubleshooting skills
– Autonomous Database will make the day-to-day operation easier.
– However, there will be failures in cloud environments in general.
26

Program Agenda
Soft Skills
Technical Skills
Direction & Action
1
2
3
4
27

Where to go – 2018?
• Soft Skills:
– 1. Leadership
– 2. Communication
– 3. Collaboration
– 4. Time Management
28
Example: https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/the-skills-companies-need-most-in-2018--and-the-courses-to-get-t
• Hard / technical skills:
– 1. Cloud and Distributed Computing
– 2. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining
– 3. Middleware and Integration Software
...
– 10. Network and Information Security
...
– 12. Data Engineering and Data Warehousing
– 13. Storage Systems and Management
– 14. Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Where to go? Still providing guidance and updated in 2019
• Soft Skills:
– 1. Creativity ß Changed
– 2. Persuasion ß Communication in 2018
– 3. Collaboration ß Remained unchanged
– 4. Adaptability ß Time Management is now on 5.
29
https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/the-skills-companies-need-most-in-2019--and-how-to-learn-them
• Hard / technical skills:
– 1. Cloud Computing & Distributed Computing
– 2. Artificial Intelligence ß Moved in
– 3. Analytical Reasoning ß Moved down / updated
– 4. People Managementß good for good managers
...
– 10. Audio Production ß Video production is on 7
...
– 12. Scientific Computing
– 13. Game Development
– 14. Social Media Marketing
– 15. Animation

Where to go?
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Example: https://blocksandfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Database-Software-Market-White-Paper.pdf

Looking Ahead!?
• https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/emerging-jobs-
report?trk=li_li_namer_bcs_product20_linkedin_emerging-
jobs&utm_campaign=product20&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linked
in&utm_content=emerging-jobs#select-country/two-zero-two-zero
31
LinkedIn’s WorldWide 2020 Emerging Jobs Report

Where to go 2018?
• For technology skills, it is best to train
early for those that will be required
– Various tools and sources claim to
provide guidance on future development.
• One example: Gartner Hype Cycle
32
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/5-trends-emerge-in-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2018/

Where to go? Still providing guidance and updated in 2019
• For technology skills, it is best to train
early for those that will be required
– Various tools and sources claim to
provide guidance on future development.
• One example: Gartner Hype Cycle
33
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/5-trends-appear-on-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2019/
Blockchain

Keep Track of Changes
34
Be Adaptable
• Jack Ma says to plan 10 years ahead
– https://youtu.be/MwixREUJOI0?t=55
– Adjust time frame & perhaps avoid
training for technology to reach
plateau-state in < 2 years
• Consider the stage of your career (5 stages)
• E.g. joining a startup using technology
in “inflated expectations” stage in your
thirties might be OK.
• There are always exceptions to the rule!

(Oracle) DBA and Other Skills Needed in 2020

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