Yet, even with that direct focus on database administration, the author succeeds in covering a great deal of ground and cutting a rather wide swathe across the database spectrum, doing so with rigor and expertise and the benefit of experience. While the book will not and is not intended to serve as a reference substitute for product documentation, it will nonetheless enhance your knowledge, and I find it of such quality and utility that I recommend it to anyone in the database field in general. Consider it a base text to serve alongside Date and Codd.
Among the nice touches, the author includes discussion of database denormalization, often missing in discussions on database design. Chapters end with both a set of review questions and a Suggested Reading section, and I find myself in agreement with most of the suggestions. An excellent Bibliography section follows the text. I would have liked to see some discussion of the difference between relational domains in theory and their implementation in practice, particularly as it impacts the design of integrity constraints. Even so, Database Administration is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
- Sal Ricciardi
(2) Proposes an organizational structure in which all DBAs, regardless of database (DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) and skill. As a consultant who specializes in IT organizational management and processes I heartily endorse this structure. It's also consistent with recommendations made in "IT Organization: Building A Worldclass Infrastructure " by Harris Kern, Stuart Galup and Guy Nemiro, and "Building Operational Excellence: Strategies to Improve It People and Processes" by Dale Kutnick and Bruce Allen.
(3) A complete and comprehensive listing of tasks and responsibilities for DBAs, ranging from creating the database environment to data warehouse administration, and everything in between (data modelling, performance and capacity management, tuning, back-up and recovery, etc.)
While achieving the recommendations for organizational structure is a daunting and complex task, assimilating the extensive list of tasks and recommendations can be accomplished quickly. One way to attain immediate value from this book at the organizational level is to derive database administration policies and processes from this book, and refer to this book for the procedures.
The ideal audience for this book includes IT managers who need to understand the complexity and scope of the DBA function under their cognizance, senior DBAs who want to implement consistent procedures, and HR specialists who develop job descriptions and recruit DBAs.