Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
cost centers that don't produce revenue? At one time or another, most companies
have struggled with these questions, but in today's heavily data-intensive, infor-
mation-dependent business environment, these functions are recognized as being
more important than ever.
DBMS manufacturers have recognized the need not only for administrators,
but for qualified administrators. Toward this end, most manufacturers offer cer-
tification programs. Certification candidates must take and pass one or more
exams to earn certification. Certifications offered and certification exam objec-
tives vary between different DBMS certification programs. One ongoing problem
with these programs is to design them so that they test for real-world-based
skills and knowledge. A parallel industry has grown up alongside the certifica-
tions, offering certification training with some giving money-back guarantees of
passing.
Justifying Administration
Data as a corporate resource has taken its rightful place alongside other corporate
resources. Virtually all aspects of business have become dependent on their infor-
mation systems and the data flowing through them. Today's organizations could
not function without their vast stores of personnel data, customer data, product
data, supplier data, and so forth. Indeed, data may well be the most important
corporate resource because it describes all of the others. Furthermore, the effec-
tive use of its data can give a company a significant competitive advantage.
The problem is that available personnel and other resources within a company
tend to be scarce (is there ever enough money to go around?), and there is typ-
ically internal competition for them. Data is no exception. As more and more
corporate functions seek the same data for their work, bottlenecks can form and
the speed of accessing the data can slow. Arguments arise over who “owns” the
data, who should have access to it, and, especially, who is responsible when
problems arise. Without someone clearly responsible for data issues, companies
respond in a variety of ways without completely understanding the problem,
such as bringing in faster computers, but these solutions have their limits and
often come with inherent drawbacks.
Management cannot be left to chance or performance optimization left as an
afterthought. Any shared corporate resource should have a dedicated department
to manage it. It makes little sense to have an important resource either not man-
aged at all or managed part-time and half-heartedly by some group that has other
responsibilities. It also makes little sense to have any one of the groups com-
peting for the shared resource also managing it—the resource manager must
be impartial when a dispute arises. The answer is to have a department, or
personnel within a department, specifically dedicated to data and database man-
agement. These should be personnel whose sole purpose is taking care of cor-
porate data.
