Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman explains that DevOps does not signal the end of the DBA:
As I travel to multiple events focused on numerous platforms the database is crucial to, I’m faced with peers frustrated with DevOps and considerable conversation dedicated to how it’s the end of the database administrator. It may be my imagination, but I’ve been hearing this same story, with the blame assigned elsewhere- either its Agile, DevOps, the Cloud or even a latest release of the actual database platform. The story’s the same- the end of the Database Administrator.
The most alarming and obvious pain point of this, is that in each of these scenarios, the result was the Database Administrator a focal point in the end more so than they were when it began. When it comes to DevOps, the specific challenges of the goal needed the DBA more so than any of these storylines. As development hurdled top speed to deliver what the business required, the DBA and operations as a whole, delivered the security, the stability and the methodologies to build automation at the level that the other groups simply never needed previously.
This is a useful rejoinder to fears of imminent job loss.