Database professionals such as DBAs and developers spend their time performing a diverse set of tasks designed to administer and improve the systems for which they are responsible. Some of their duties involve repetitive processes that are critical in maintaining the performance and viability of their databases. At other times they may need to venture into areas that challenge their skill set. This can lead to a loss in productivity as they struggle to accomplish the job at hand.
Many of these individuals work in complex environments and are expected to nimbly move between different types of databases while maintaining a level of proficiency in their idiosyncrasies. This can be a daunting prospect for the most highly-skilled DBAs and cause sleepless nights for new team members who are trying to get up to speed. Adequately keeping up with their responsibilities requires database professionals to rely on the quality of their database tools. The right tool can streamline their workload, increase their level of productivity, and provide the time needed for them to enhance the performance of their systems.
Challenges Faced by Database Professionals
There are several issues that come up in the daily work life of a DBA or developer. Some of the ones you are most likely to hear about are:
Providing support in multi-platform environments
It’s a rare DBA that can boast of supporting a single type of database. They may be tasked with administering an environment that contains an assortment of different database solutions. There might be times when a team member is working on instances of SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle concurrently. Additional complications can be introduced by running the databases on different operating systems.
The various software solutions may have been chosen for valid reasons in cases where standardizing on a single application did not make business sense. That fact does nothing to minimize the challenges of bouncing around on similar, yet often very different platforms. Feature sets will vary, slowing down the average DBA when switching systems. Simply performing the common daily tasks associated with database management can become unwieldy when dealing with multiple platforms. Any ability to reduce the obstacles faced when working in a mixed-platform environment will increase the productivity of the database team.
Working with queries
Queries are what databases are all about. What value would all of the collected information stored in your company’s databases have if they couldn’t be queried? A database team spends a lot of time writing and executing queries, and this process may involve multiple iterations to achieve the query’s desired result. Even SQL experts can hit a roadblock when attempting to create a query for the platform on which they are operating. Yep, there’s that platform thing again.
Even in a perfect world where your DBAs were using a single database product, any means to facilitate query writing would be greatly appreciated. One way to streamline this process is with visual tools that assist in building SQL queries. A tool of this nature could drastically reduce the time required to develop and test new queries.
Being able to quickly create a visual representation of your data would also be advantageous for your database team. Imagine the time saved if you could create a chart or graph directly from your data rather than using basic spreadsheet capabilities. This powerful facility would enable you to present the results of your queries to any stakeholder in an easily understandable format.
Data handling
Direct interaction with data is unavoidable for the database professional. Importing and exporting data is often required for a number of reasons. Here again, you may be hindered by differences in performing the same type of function on the varied platforms that need to be addressed. You might also need to make a fast edit on a table and not want to go through the process of creating a query to get this done. The ability to directly edit data when necessary can present a big advantage to your DBAs.
Scripting and searching
Here are two other ways that your DBAs spend some of their time. Creating useful scripts can be time-consuming, and tools that can automatically generate scripts can make the life of a DBA much more enjoyable. The same can be said for any time that can be saved when searching for database objects across varied platforms. Reducing the time spent on these types of tasks allows your team to concentrate on more value-added endeavors.
A Comprehensive Database Tool
What is needed to enable your database team to reach its full potential are tools that can address the issues that we have previously identified. Aqua Data Studio incorporates features that get to the heart of all of these problems. It is an inclusive database tool that provides your team with a single solution that resolves many of the challenges faced by a modern DBA.
Some of the outstanding features of Aqua Data Studio include the ability to:
- Manage all of your databases from a unified tool that eliminates the need of your team to learn multiple interfaces.
- Perform cross-platform support from a single integrated IDE the enables you to connect to cloud, relational, and NoSQL databases.
- Visually build and analyze SQL queries as well as 2D and 3D charts that are updated in real-time by your data sources.
- Easily import and export data in a variety of formats using the intuitive wizards incorporated into the tool.
- Develop SQL queries and institute version control for effective file management.
If you are looking for a way to improve the daily life of your database team and effortlessly increase their productivity, your search is over. Aqua Data Studio will quickly become the favored tool of all of the database professionals in your organization.