DBAs must have the ability to manage different RDBMS across platforms

1. Introduction

Today's IT environment is undergoing drastic changes, and companies that rely on a single relational database management system (RDBMS) to manage data are beginning to diminish. Analysts report that more than 90% of companies today have more than one RDBMS. In the present tense economic situation, the actual demand is challenging the work limit of the IT organization personnel. It is increasingly rare for a company to have different DBAs for managing each RDBMS. Today's DBAs have to manage different RDBMS across platforms, which is very common.

"58% of DBAs are required to administer more than one database platform. "--From: searchdatabase.com investigation

In general, a DBA is not only knowledgeable about basic relational theory, but also has a specialized RDBMS experience. The fundamentals of database design and management are interlinked among all RDBMS. The key to becoming a successful Cross-platform DBA is to have a true understanding of terminology and nuances of different RDBMS. This article discusses the basic architectural and management differences between multiplatform Oracle and DB2 UDB.

2. Basic components

Most object types and functions are very similar between different platforms, and some important differences are how stored procedures are used and how logs are generated. These topics are discussed in detail in this article.

Table 1: Differences in common terminology in basic database components