DBA Role Shift in a DevOps World

DBA Role Shift in a DevOps World

5/5/2016 2www.datavail.com

A bit about todayThe Question:

What happens to a DBA in a DevOps continuous deployment environment?

1

2

The session will explore both the strategic & practical aspects of how the DBA role is impacted with the adoption of DevOps.

Firsthand experiences from a DBA and the organization learning gained during these transitions will be featured during the presentation.

Scott:50% of the presentation

Business & CIO focus; organization dynamics & change

Chuck:50% of the presentation

Technical content, practical experience & case study


Career Highlights

• Managed delivery of 275 seat, multi-location application

development center

• Established 6 European datacenters, 2 application

outsourcing centers, and a 24x7 multi-lingual call center

• Developed multiple IT strategies to support carve-outs

and business consolidations of mid-market companies

• Founded a cloud hosting company

• Lead 4 M&A transactions

Fun Facts:

• Building an Arduino controlled robotic arm

• Compete in 1,000 yard IBS target shooting

Introduction: Scott Frock

EVP and Chief Operating Officer at Datavail, North America’s largest DBA services company with 600 DBAs on our direct payroll

29 years of IT industry experience in a variety of technical and managerial roles for organizations including State of Ohio, EDS, CIBER, Highstreet, and Datavail


Technology Experience

• Oracle database administration and tuning

• .NET, T-SQL, C#, PHP, JavaScript, Java, ANSI SQL,

PL/SQL, APEX, and many other languages on operating

systems by Oracle, HP, IBM, Linux and Windows

• SSMS, Oracle OEM, AppDynamics, Splunk, and Visual

VM for performance tuning operations

Fun Facts:

• Comes from four generations of Florida Cattlemen on a

1200+ acre cattle ranch settled in 1850s

• Artist, Graphic Designer & Semi-Pro Photographer

Introduction: Chuck Ezell

Chuck Ezell leads Datavail’s global Development, Tuning, and Automation practice

22 years of experience as a multi-platform application development DBA

Specialist in database performance tuning, automation and ETL management


What is DevOps?

There is no right or wrong answer

For some it’s a paradigm, others it’s a methodology, some an org chart, others a job title

Application Development

OperationsDevOps

DevOps accelerates delivery

of business value

• Time to market

• Improve connectivity

to business

• Increase customer

input and feedback

cycles

For today, we want to think about DevOps in the context of combining Application Development and Operational activities into a high-performance, empowered team


So how did we get here where we now need this change?

In the 80s we improved quality by separating IT into smaller functional teams (aka silos) such as development, testing, and operations. We appointed leaders, analyzed the process, and improved execution

These structure changes helped support new requirements coming from adoption of a major architecture change as technology shifted from central (mainframe) to distributed (client-server) computing

• Developer coded, installed, and

took pager calls

• Operations serviced the hardware

• Deployments to 1,000s of end-nodes

drove need for separate teams to

manage roll-outs

• Complexity increased


Results

1. Focus brought quality, primarily as measured by defect rate

2. Time to market (release frequency)went down

3. We measured more things. Internal metrics emerged (SLOs – thanks in part to the outsourcers) so process success could be declared… but with separation of the business process, the connectivity to the true business became lost and behaviors sometimes aligned on the achieving the wrong items

The focus left the voice of the customer and velocity slowed….


So didn’t agile fix this?

It certainly helped• The focus on the user story returned

to the forefront

• Competitive differentiators were defined and measured

• Focus went back to the user experience rather than internal SLOs

Then technology got more complex, budgets were trimmed, India said we can do it for a LOT less, and the business said give me more (for a LOT less)

But, the ability to realize the full potential was still hampered by…

the org chart


The one true org chart

From the time we sat in our first computer science class, our minds were filled with the concept of THE one true org chart

This structure, while practical in design, reinforced separation of duty rather than cooperation

So where are our DBAs?

CIO

Infrastructure

Facilities Operations

Applications

Development Testing


Today, DBAs exist in both teams!

Focus on patching, security settings, backup, deadlocks, incident

management, and service request

Infrastructure Applications

Focus on schema design, developing optimal SQL, making data available to

the “edge” through web-services, BI/DW

So who is responsible for managing the business data?

The lack of a single, clear answer is the main reason we are

seeing progressive companies, across all industries, make a

fundamental change to their structure


A new “data focused” paradigm

There is a new trend emerging over the last decade where companies recognize a limitation with the traditional org structure

What is the most valuable asset a business has?

We are seeing with increasing frequency the classic 2 tower structure replaced with a 3 tower structure across all industries:

CIO

Infrastructure


Data

MDM Integration BI/DW

Applications

Development Testing

The data tower becomes the corporate steward for master data, where the single record of the data truth is known

People? Customers? Data?


A elevation of the DBA role

The new structure creates a logical, consolidated home for DBA’s

CIO

Infrastructure


Data

MDM Integration BI/DW

Applications

Development Testing

The role of the DBA now has a leadership responsibility to manage, protect, and LEVERAGE a key corporate asset

This elevation of data does not solve the earlier problem separation of duties created --- it could be argued that it amplifies it by creating a new silo

In comes DevOps – the breaking down of the barriers across the functional teams


Accountability for Standards, Compliance, Governance

What we’ve seen work

We believe a matrix organization is the best way to structure and drive DevOps strategies

CIO

Infrastructure Data Application

DevOps App Team 1

DevOps App Team 2

Functional Line Managers,

There is no room in this organization for “command and

control leaders”

Collaboration & Team must define the culture


Full Life Cycle Responsibility


We believe a matrix organization is the best way to structure and drive DevOps strategies

CIO

Infrastructure Data Application

DevOps App Team 1

DevOps App Team 2

Application DevOps teams,



Matrix teams aren’t new: what gives?


DevOps Culture Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

1. Make the focus on the customer impact and time to market(releases measured in days not quarters)

2. Deploy self-contained cross-functional teams (DEV, DBA, Testing, Ops)

3. Empowered and authorize teams – full authority over application experience and methodologies (design, build, operate), including technologies, architecture, and integration methods. New tools will be needed….

4. Demand fanatical support – especially post implementation

– Responsibilities are end-to-end – Everyone is 24x7

– I built it and you run it does not exist in DevOps

– You build crap, you get called first at night to fix it, then to the CIOs office in the morning to explain

5. Each team member must be passionate and entrepreneurial about their role and the team

Demand innovation – expect brilliance


Other than team structure, what else?

Expect an elevation in the role technology in the process

• Automated testing – a must have; even if only for core functionality

• Embed instrumentation – from the beginning of the development cycle; then double it

• Use automated release management (and roll-back) such as containerization technologies like Docker, and deployment technologies like Octopus Deploy, Chef, Puppet

• Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring – not just server characteristics, but business processes and user experiences

• Solve for the DBA - the DBA is one function that can’t be replaced with automation – schema changes typically aren’t scripted as too complex a 1x. A managed service to support deployment can be a great aid to keep your team happy

How DevOps is Impacting the DBA's Role

The DBAs Role


Traditional DBA’s Responsibilities

Planning, Installing and Configuring a Database Platform

Planning, designing and creating databases

Planning, designing and implementing High Availability and Disaster Recovery for each database (HADR)

Maintaining and monitoring the database platform

Occasionally implementing some performance tuning on the databases

Re-balancing workloads across database servers based on monitoring

Securing databases platforms and individual databases based on requirements and implementation


The Growing DBA Support Role

One31%

Two41%

Three to Five21%

More than Five7% Number of Database

Platforms an Average DBA has to support daily.

One

Two

Three to Five

More than Five


The DBA’s New Workload

100% of DBAs surveyed are responsible for multiple databases

75% of this say the number of instances are steadily growing

70% say they manage DBs from differentvendors (Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, etc.)

60% say they are spending more time on performance tuning beyond their daily tasks

Workload is increasing, becoming more diverse and performance is a moving target.

* Study performed by DBTA sponsored by Dell 2015


The Growing Expectation Gap

45% say change management is a critical task in today’s database environment

33% DBAs agree that supporting development database provisioning is critical to their daily tasks.

100% DBAs agreed that automation was an area of needed focus and growth

Managing changes, increasing deployment schedules, support new/diverse development

needs dictates some form of automation.

* Study performed by DBTA sponsored by Dell 2015


Toolset Changing Landscape

Increasing platform dependencies

Silo data migrating to consolidated data platforms

Need to learn new technologies for provisioning.

Increasing pressure to deploy changes quickly & often

Growing need for more disposable development DBs


New Demands for Technical Knowledge

GUI• Javascript

• HTML

• CSS

Server• C# .NET

• Java

• PHP

• XML/JSON

• SQL

Database• SQL Server

• Oracle

• MySQL

• NoSQL

Automation

& Deployment• Jenkins

• Bamboo

• OctopusDeploy

• Docker

• Chef

QA/Testing• Load Testing

• Vulnerability Testing

• Code Review

• TuningContinuous

Integration

Case Studies


Smoothing Code Deployments

Customer: Fast Casual Restaurant Chain

Problem:• Were manually performing code deployments to Weblogic platform 1

per week for Retail, Catering, eCommerce, Mobile (plus 7 other internal apps)

• Were manually pulling DB schema & java/jsp changes from dev environment, and pushing to production environment.

• Code push were sometimes being pushed to the wrong server. • Taking close to 2 hours on a good deployment with many on conference

call together.

Success Story:

• Took over the deployment activity, freeing their internal resources• Develop scripts to automation code push to proper location on a

schedule during the window for their release• Moved to pushes 2-3 times per day.

Reduced costs in Employee time investment in deployments, increased success of deployments and deployment frequency


Performance Health Checks

Customer: Electronic Components & Computer Parts Company

Problem:• One of the largest Oracle EBS implementation in the world.

• We manage all the code pushes that happen 3-4 times per day• Database replications, execution plan changes, schema changes all

happening multiple times per day.• Data growth is fast and unpredictable

Success Story:• Implemented twice daily automated health checks • Provides deep insight into data growth, performance for specific

database programs and underperforming SQL, weekly tasking for Performance Tuning & Table Reorgs

• Exposes poor code & schema changes very quickly providing operations & development time to provide quick change turnarounds.

Transformed their costs in time and money to drive improvements beyond simply “lights on” support.


Customer: Electronic Components & Computer Parts Company

Problem:• 8 – 10,000 incidents per mo., 90% automated from OEM Grid.• 6-10 complex clones per month typically delivered off-hours with little

client oversight

• 1,500 – 2,000 Request for Change per mo., Initiated by 300+ off shore developers

• 5 environments with differing outage windows, 2 PROD, 3 QualitySuccess Story:

• Developed an alert management engine with detailed metrics on productivity, failure rates, failure reasons, trending by reason code, developer submitted by, etc.

• Detailed queue depth reporting, historical and dashboard• Integrated into customer ticketing system

DBAs taking the proactive, initiative to create unique IP that drives solutions with facts & metrics

Managing Monitoring Alerts


Alert Optimizer in Action:

Dynamic Skyscraper Chart

Dynamic Heat Map by Week Series


DevOps DBA

DevOps DBA

DTA DevOps DBA Services

• Development• Java

• C# .NET

• APEX

• PHP

• SQL / Stored Procedures

• Performance• SQL Tuning

• Vulnerability & Load Testing

• ETL Tuning & Improvement

• Continuous Integration• Jenkins/Bamboo

• OctopusDeploy

• Docker / Chef

• SQL

• Data & Data Structures

• Monitoring & Tuning• SSIS, Informatica, SQL, App Code


DevOps Services Working Together

Planning

Build/Create

QA Testing

Deployment

Tuning

Code Review

Testing

Release Automation

Monitoring/Discovery

Development

Quality

AssuranceOperations

DevOpsDBA

We’ve learned it’s about

flexibility, communication

and teamwork.


In Closing: DevOps Making a Significant Impact on DBAs

The new DevOps paradigm makes a lot of sense.

Solutions are not always straight forward, clearly seen or easily resolved.

The role of the DBA is not going anywhere. In fact, it’s becoming more critical to the success of DevOps.

The modern DBAs daily job has grown beyond a database focused effort.

The need for proactive thinking, areas where automation can be introduced and acting somewhat like a developer at times is becoming more of a standard expectation


Chuck Ezell

DTA Practice Leader

[email protected]

478.832.8119 (m)

Scott Frock

EVP & Chief Operating Officer

[email protected]

717.422.0700 (m)

Contact Info

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Date post:	15-Feb-2017
Category:	Data & Analytics
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DBA Role Shift in a DevOps World

Data & Analytics