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To be truthful we have been looking at mobile interfaces for database administration for a long time. Since I got the first iPAQ in 2001 I have been thinking about how it could be used to improve DBA support. To date none of the devices has really been suitable for DBA work. Lack of mobile broadband (3G) and the small form factor have made all the devices we looked at over the last few years suitable for being notified of alerts, but not suitable for issue resolution or routine work. This list also includes the Apple iPhone.
But why is mobile support so important for DBAs when compared to other areas of IT? Well, by the very nature of the DBA role much of what we do happens when everyone else has gone home. There are very few operational DBA tasks that can be carried out during peak production periods. Of course good DBAs will try and avoid working 24x7 by scheduling jobs and using tools such as RockSolid to automate a lot of the after-hours administration functions. However if something does go wrong, typically, an on call DBA is notified to respond and resolve the issue.
This is where the difference in device form factor comes into play. With other mobile devices you may have been notified about the issue, and then you pulled out your laptop to log in and investigate the issue. This is all well and good if you are at home, but if you are out and about – at a restaurant, at a park with your kids, walking the dog etc – this was much more troublesome. Being “on call” as a DBA often meant you had many restrictions on how far you could roam from home.
The Apple iPad combined with RockSolid starts to change this. The device is small, thin and light but has a large enough screen that the information displayed doesn’t have to be limited. And it is fast. Devices such as the early iPAQs used to drive me mad when you would try and access information and sit and wait for 30 seconds for the page to come up. RockSolid on the Apple iPad is not all that different in performance to running it on your PC (of course this is related to the quality of your 3G provider when not on WiFi). And you don’t have to wait for your PC to boot up, or wake up from sleep mode. These might seem minor, but resolving an issue in 15-30 seconds as opposed to 5-10 minutes does make a big difference when you are eating dinner with your friend at a restaurant!
So while it sounds a bit “touchy feely” we actually see the Apple iPad as a liberating device for the DBA. They can go out with a much smaller and much less fiddly device and be better connected. And of course this translates into faster response times and much improved resolution times to boot.
