Re: broad discussion about future market direction for DBA

"grjohnson" <Johnsog123_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:32b8a689.0211171805.57652eda_at_posting.google.com...
> Anyway, so what's the future of Oracle, XML is the big one and is
> definatly where Oracle is trying to move toward.

I disagree (almost) entirely. XML is a self describing markup language. Doesn't that just make your heart race. Actually even if it does, does it make your CEO or marketing director's heart race. Thought not. It shouldn't. XML doesn't *by itself* solve any business problem whatsoever.

The problem that XML and (more correctly) web services can help solve is consistent data presentation from diverse systems. Many many companies, ours included could run their businesses better and for less cost if they could get consistent reliable data out of all of their systems at once onto business managers desktops. For this to happen the HR system has to talk to the finance system and to the marketing system and the data warehouse and the ... well you get the idea.

Don't get me wrong but we've been here before haven't we, and in the end the technology isn't the insurmountable problem (all of the above could be done with DCOM/COM+/CORBA/EJB whatever). The problem is design and analysis and creeping standards together with bad project management and ludicrous timescales. (and self important types who think that implementing a payment/receivable system is a similar task to building a cathedral and so they should be called Architects and get a similar salary).

Of course the above is somewhat overstated, web services are useful especially when building from scratch, I rather suspect though that they are a fad for the first 5 years of the 21st century. Fads and booms do not good careers make.

> And there is still
> the requirement of storing the data efficiently and querying the data
> quickly.

Yep, And in the end you will *always* need a database professional to do that, just as you need a mechanic to tune a machine.

--
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK
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