tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post4842534224267645272..comments2023-10-20T09:12:43.031-06:00Comments on Diving Deep into Sublime Seas: So, what's your “Database to DBA” Ratio?Venkat Devrajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14463595810339970301noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post-81011954449354376022008-09-04T08:08:00.000-06:002008-09-04T08:08:00.000-06:00Mahesh, Thanks for reading my blog and for your ...Mahesh,<BR/> Thanks for reading my blog and for your comments. You pose some great questions. I'm afraid my response is going to be a tad lengthy. Rather than trying to fit it all in here, I will post it as a separate blog entry in the next day or two.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>VenkatVenkat Devrajhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14463595810339970301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post-60077138524298262182008-09-03T12:09:00.000-06:002008-09-03T12:09:00.000-06:00VenkatI was the above anonymous poster. I have use...Venkat<BR/>I was the above anonymous poster. I have used Kintana in the past for doing automation of E-Business support tasks. It was very good. The hard part was to put the ROI for the investment. <BR/><BR/>My only concern about these analysts who write these reports is that they are not MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively exhaustive). They then circulate it to the CIO's who use it to benchmark their staff with out all the facts.<BR/><BR/>So in your estimate, out of the 40 hours a DBA works in a week (hahaha), how many hours can the RBA save?<BR/><BR/>The reason I ask is that repetitive tasks take only 10-20% of the DBA's time. Most of the time is spent working on new projects, providing development assistance, identify issues in poorly performing systems and so on. I know this because I have been doing this for the past 14 years.<BR/><BR/>Also, from the perspective of being proactive versus reactive, let us take two common scenario's. Disk Failure and a craxy workload hijacking the system. The users would know it about the same time you know it too. How would a RBA help there?<BR/><BR/>Thanks<BR/>MaheshAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post-56308630557270664462008-09-02T13:27:00.000-06:002008-09-02T13:27:00.000-06:00Anonymous, You are right in that app development...Anonymous,<BR/> You are right in that app development maturity (or lack thereof) does impact DBA staffing. RBA cannot and *is not meant* to address that. All that RBA will do is to help you automate repetitive work patterns. If, in your company, the DBAs are stuck with application code that causes them to have to do a ton of troubleshooting, the DBAs may not be able to fix the application code in the short term, nor can they eliminate this type of troubleshooting. But they most definitely can leverage RBA 2.0 to recognize and deal with problem patterns before business users are impacted, and without continuing to suck up significant DBA and other admin time. <BR/><BR/>Obviously, we can't control everything in IT, but let's be smart about what we can indeed control!Venkat Devrajhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14463595810339970301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post-66757196320797047852008-09-02T12:46:00.000-06:002008-09-02T12:46:00.000-06:00The article from Gartner misses a big point. The m...The article from Gartner misses a big point. The maturity of the development organization is one of the big factors impacting DBA staffing. The higher the maturity (writing code that performs well and code that does not fail often -low defect ratio) the less amount of work the DBA has to do to identify and troubleshoot problems.<BR/><BR/>No amount of RBA will fix that...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post-7910773339915321422008-07-21T16:46:00.000-06:002008-07-21T16:46:00.000-06:00Ashutosh, Thanks for the comment. Just to clarif...Ashutosh,<BR/> Thanks for the comment. Just to clarify, when I refer to the asset to admin ratio, it is from the perspective of the mundane aspects of service delivery and support. The goal is not necessarily to reduce FTE head-count, but to redeploy FTEs towards more strategic areas (planning, design, performance, availability and scalability optimization, etc.) - areas that are frequently disregarded (one of my pet peeves), but time and effort applied there pays off in spades! Hence I prefer to look at it as productivity gains, rather than strict FTE reduction.<BR/><BR/>In my experience, the productivity gains hover around 30% plus in the first 12 months with the application of a suitable RBA solution. <BR/><BR/>Hope this info helps,<BR/>VenkatVenkat Devrajhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14463595810339970301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35032837.post-64203365829130071282008-07-16T12:11:00.000-06:002008-07-16T12:11:00.000-06:00Very interesting! I remember doing a similar exerc...Very interesting! I remember doing a similar exercise a couple of years back on "how may network administrators for x switches and y routers". <BR/><BR/>As you also mentioned, tools and automation are a great way to reduce the FTE count when it comes to service delivery and operations. Am curious if you also explored the % in effort/FTE reduction which an RBA tool would typically result in. Would be great to hear your thoughts on this.Ashutoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09714403918385668102noreply@blogger.com