When database administrators think of automation, there might be a lot of fear for the future.

There’s a big elephant in the room when this fear grips us: Database-As-a-Service.

Let’s go over what Database-As-a-Service is and what it means for the Data Guardian.

What is a DBaaS?

Database-as-a-Service, or DBaaS, is a widely popular product from cloud vendors like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

These vendors basically take on the burden of most operations for managing databases. Things like patching and updating, backups, failovers, and a even portion of data security.

They provide this as a product.

This leaves you, the customer, with the burden of access control, configuration and schema management.

And of course your data.

What is the concern with DBaaS?

The concern for many database administrators is that these vendors have automated much of what their traditional duties were.

And if those tasks are automated now, what will be the justification of their role?

I think the concern boils down to a question of job security.

As I pointed out previously, if your job security is tied to you doing low-impact tasks for much of your week, you probably have bigger issues.

What should the Data Guardian do?

Cloud vendors have put much of database operations in this black box called DBaaS.

But it’s not magic.

And humans made that black box. So there’s prone to be mistakes.

A Data Guardian follows that old Russian proverb:

Trust, but Verify!

Old Russian Proverb

Don’t trust the DBaaS vendor completely with your data.

Learn about the product. Know the limitations. Know how to get visibility into your data.

At the end of the day, it is still your data, and you are responsible for it.

Conclusion

While cloud vendors popularized DBaaS, it is spreading like wildfire as other vendors offer their product as a service.

So this isn’t going away.

To survive, a Data Guardian will need to learn. And continue learning.

Because technology will advance, and those that love learning and improving are the fittest.