This post will discuss the Top 5 Future Technologies for DBA(Database Administrators) to learn in 2021 or some logical paths your career can take as a DBA in 2021.

If you open any job portal today and find DBA (Database Administration) jobs, you will either encounter a glass ceiling in terms of the package, or you will see a saturated Job description at the highest level.

Learn more about Technology Trends in 2021. The conclusion from industry trends is that as the infrastructure is being moved to cloud technologies, buzz words like AI and automation are floating around. So the wise and industry-aware DBA needs to update himself and gradually prepare an alternate career path with emerging technologies.

1 . Cloud DBA 

As you know, most information technology infrastructure is moving or getting migrated to the cloud. Knowledge of cloud infrastructure is becoming a must for all IT professionals daily.

If you are a DBA and know about cloud database technologies like AWS RDS, AWS Redshift, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL database, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud SQL by Google Cloud Platform (GCP), etc. It automatically takes your resume to the next level of screening by HR.

[su_note note_color=”#0174be” text_color=”#ffffff” radius=”4″]        What more should you know apart from your DBA roles?

1. • Database: Learn all the databases as service offerings of a cloud provider like AWS RDS. Also, explore cloud server technologies like EC2 and learn how to install and maintain databases on cloud servers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
   • Compute: Learn about all the Compute options available in AWS, GCP or in Azure. In Aws, we got many compute options like compute-optimized, storage-optimized, Accelerated Computing or memory-optimized, etc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
   • Storage: Storage is another vital area where we preserve all the database files, but in the cloud, we get many other options that offer many new features faster than traditional utilities like RMAN, MySQL dump, etc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
   • Network: Understand various connectivity options and learn how they work. Also, see how you can establish a network from local in-house infrastructure to cloud infrastructure as AWS direct connect.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
   • Database: migration services: Most cloud platforms have database migration services. If you can understand them well, you can provide a solution to your client and business when they need cloud database migration.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
   • Security: Securing the database or database services is the most critical task of  DBA. Most of the time, it has been maintained by network ACLs, object or role level privileges, but in the cloud, we got many other prompts and robust options like AWS security group. You can learn and understand them as part of the transformation as cloud DBA[/su_note]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Cloud Database Offerings 

2. Integration/Cloud Database Migration

Integration is going to be vital trade for database administrators. You should start developing your knowledge about cloud and non-cloud integration methods like service calls, SFTP or API calls.

All new and upcoming database versions are API enabled, and As a DBA, if you must know how the application is consuming data and in case of troubleshooting, you can figure out its database issue or integration. 

Cloud database migration is the next widespread trade in which business is looking for database administrators so that, according to need or for cost-saving, DBSa can migrate databases from on-premise to the cloud or from one cloud to another cloud platform. Most cloud platforms have their migration services.

As a DBA, you should have all the knowledge, like how costly they are.

What kind of migration will it be?

Will it migrate from one database to another like an oracle to PostgreSQL migration?

You should be aware of all the parts of it so that you can design a better migration strategy. 

In addition, if you are an Oracle Application DBA, you can become a hot cake in the market if you know Oracle EBS migration from local datacenter (On-premises)  to AWS or Oracle cloud.

[su_note note_color=”#0174be” text_color=”#ffffff” radius=”4″]

Some Integration topics for further reading

• Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC)
• AWS Integration Services
• Rest API and Service in the database
• GPG and PGP
• Sftp 
• Dell Boomi
• HTTPS call over pl SQL using oracle wallet
• Service/API or rest call using an SSL certificate
• API Gateways or API management 

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3. DevOps / Site Reliability Engineer cum DBA

We all know DevOps is not an application or a tool. It’s a method to manage Applications and Operations agilely with automation so that time and effort can be saved for other essential activities.

Being a DBA, if you know about DevOps tools. It is a win-win situation for you and the organization because you can work as DevOps DBA.

With this new position, the business has the advantage that a single person or team can handle both Database tier and DevOps tasks.

In the modern IT era DBA role is also transforming towards site reliability engineering, where database administrators are slowly moving towards the role of DBA cum Site Reliability Engineer.

It is becoming increasingly popular where Oracle Exadata, Oracle core DBAs and Oracle Apps DBAs are considered database site reliability engineers  (DBA SRE). In this new position, your knowledge has to be a little wide with Applications, Networks and Operating systems. You can perform not only database-related tasks, but you can get exposure to future technologies that are replated site reliability engineering.

In simple words Site Reliability engineer = (DBA+ DevOPS+Application Knowledge+Sys admin)

4. Big Data DBA

As the name suggests, Big Data DBA  is a DBA that is managing BigData, which means not only the database you are responsible for but big data infrastructure too.

So here you get some exposure to other trending technologies like Hadoop, Cassandra, Hive, Pig, ZooKeeper, Scoop, AWS EMR, and Data Lake. I should say the whole ecosystem.

If you don’t have a vanilla Hadoop setup, you can also work with Hortonworks or Cloudera Trust me. Your career path is set for another ten years.

[su_note note_color=”#0174be” text_color=”#ffffff” radius=”4″]Why do they need a dba with Hadoop administration knowledge?

Most of the time, for database-related stuff, they have to depend on a DBA Team.

For example, take hive meta store backup or Hortonworks repository database backup.

Another example dba provides high Availability to the Cloudera Application store database which typically can run on MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle or DB2.

A person who knows Hadoop administration plus database administration knowledge creates a lot of value for Team and organization.

It saves time and effort for operation. You can get Cloudera or Hortonworks administrator certification for more knowledge or opt for any free  BigData courses from www.coursera.org.

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5. Data Engineer

If you like development or working as a development dba who loves to code and Administration, this is the best fit for you. A data Engineer could be your next choice. 

As a Data engineer, you should know about data pipes, data pipeline development, Data modelling, Design data processing systems, Building and operationalising data processing systems, Ensuring solution quality, Development, supporting data flows, ETL /ELT flows, extracting data from the BigData ecosystem.

If you know about Containerization and orchestration between data flows will be an added advantage, but it is a demanding stream that can handle DBA tasks. You can also go for various database engineer tutorials and certifications. My suggestion would be to check google data engineer certification in the beginning. 

If you like to pursue this path, you can get the certificate from google. For more details, see this Link

If you want to know more about Emerging Technology Trends in 2021, read my post.