Cloud DBA: How cloud changes database administrator’s role

Cloud-based systems have become the IT infrastructure of choice for many organizations, in all industries and of all sizes. Users can now choose from a seemingly endless array of cloud platforms, services and applications, including all manner of cloud databases. That’s changing the nature of database deployments: A late 2021 survey of cloud users by IT management tools vendor Flexera found that data warehouses and relational databases were the two most popular PaaS technologies, respectively used by 55% and 49% of responding organizations.

The role of the database administrator (DBA) is also changing as a result. Database administration teams often face a steep learning curve when they begin to transition from on-premises systems to cloud platforms. For a DBA who’s new to the cloud, the complexity of the transition depends partly on the type of cloud service that’s chosen. There’s a big difference between deploying and administering databases in an IaaS environment and a database as a service (DBaaS) one.

IaaS is the cloud architecture that’s the closest to on-premises systems. Think of it as servers and storage in the cloud: IaaS vendors provide compute and data storage platforms and handle maintenance and support of them. The vendors may also bundle operating systems with the platforms. But users continue to be responsible for installing and managing their software stack, including databases.

DBaaS significantly raises the service provider’s control over the cloud environment. In addition to the hardware and operating system, DBaaS vendors assume ownership of the database software and other software components. Because of that, DBaaS has a greater impact on database administration. Accordingly, this article focuses mostly on how DBaaS deployments affect the job of a cloud DBA.

What’s different for DBAs in the cloud

A mistake that some IT and data management teams make is assuming that DBaaS vendors provide the vast majority of database administration functions — or all of them, even. Migrating to a DBaaS environment in the cloud doesn’t reduce the amount of time a DBA spends administering the back-end system to zero. But it does decrease the routine administrative work that’s required.

DBAs who shift from managing on-premises database systems to cloud-based ones need to be trained on the new architectures. Typically, they also must take on some new duties and responsibilities in place of existing ones that they no longer need to do. Here’s an overview of some of the changes that DBAs can expect when they begin administering DBaaS environments.

• System provisioning. Initial system design and resource allocation responsibilities are commonly shared with other IT staffers in on-premises environments. But in the cloud, a DBA often assumes full responsibility for working with the vendor to provision the database system and allocate compute, memory and storage resources to workloads.
• Disaster recovery. Another shared responsibility on premises, it typically falls on a cloud DBA to ensure that geo-replicated backups and geo-redundant database system clusters are set up and configured as needed. That requires the DBA to learn the chosen DBaaS vendor’s disaster recovery architecture.
• Backup and recovery. In on-premises systems, a DBA is responsible for data backup, recovery and retention processes. That becomes a shared responsibility with the DBaaS vendor in the cloud. The vendor handles configuration and execution tasks, while the DBA is responsible for adjusting the backup routines and schedule to meet application needs.
• System patching and maintenance. The DBaaS vendor defines maintenance windows, although a DBA can adjust dates and times for regular maintenance as needed. For critical security and system availability updates, the vendor often sets strict deadlines that require them to be done by a specific date and then applies the patches itself, instead of the DBA doing that.
• Capacity planning. A DBA continues to work with application developers and end users to forecast system usage and resource requirements. But instead of working with the IT team to expand systems when needed, the DBA is responsible for adjusting the cloud service tiers with the DBaaS vendor to accommodate required capacity growth.

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