More and more companies seem to be moving away from hiring a pure DBA role. Instead they defer to talented developers who may or may not be able to design a solid database structure. Oddly enough, this doesn’t seem to be as much of a fad as many other silly things companies do; at least with SQL Server. It appears that many times they are not really stressing the power of the engine, and are able to move along adequately with the resources at hand.
I’m a strong believer in the value a DBA provides to any project. It doesn’t matter if you’re implementing purchased software or developing something in house. Likewise, it doesn’t matter if you’re hosting off site or on premise. Either way, at least on some basis, you will benefit from the skills of a seasoned DBA. At a minimum they can confirm if you have adequate hardware for your present needs, and establish a baseline for future comparison, as well as help with Disaster recovery and security implementations.
So, maybe you can get by with a developer who has strong data modeling skills. Many developers are pretty good at tuning queries as well. If your database is straight forward, and you are using an ORM that works adequately, there isn’t a lot more to be done. Even still, a talented DBA can identify those areas of performance that are hurting you most, and help tune your database access, so that the things that are small remain small.
A database is a good example of the straw that broke a camel’s back. You keep adding more and more weight until that final straw is just too much. There is often little warning. And when it hits, it’s really difficult to figure things out, and get it back online.
If you don’t have, or need, a full time DBA, it’s probably a good practice to keep one on retainer, and have them do some regular maintenance on your systems.
Cheers,
Ben