A Horseless Carriage?

August 1, 2008 at 11:17 am (Misc) (buggy whips, dba career)

I’ve talked before about my concern that I’m manufacturing buggy whips.  Jason Massie over at StatisticsIO has posted a pretty convincing argument that cloud computing could be a horseless carriage coming down the road. Effectively we’re still looking Diesel’s first engine, but that could mean it’s just a matter of time. As Mr. Massie points out, the speed of change in IT is one heck of a lot faster than in other parts of the world.

So, when you do finally see that Stanley Steamer roar by, belching smoke and going half the speed of a good horse, don’t laugh and point. Someone is spending time & money on that thing and they’re not buying your buggy whip. Clouds are just like any other major technological shift (ORM anyone?) that could change DBA’s career paths. However, just like those other technological shfits, it could be simply reorienting where we spend our time and focus our efforts, rather than completely eleminating the job.

Anyone who has read a few of my pathetic ramblings on this blog know that I tend to cover a lot of territory, from basic database design, to store proc tuning, to Operations Manager configuration with bits and pieces of VBScript, C#, and other technologies tossed in. That’s because I like to keep my brain facile. I want to always be learning how to learn. The key to being in technology is always finding the next wave and riding it. I’ve been riding this DBA thing for a while and I don’t see an immediate end in sight, but I’m keeping my eyes open and so should you.