Five Ways Automation Speeds Up Big Data Deployments
There’s no doubt that managing databases and associated middleware has become more complicated over the years. Given the fact that the number of people with the skills needed to manage that class of IT infrastructure has not risen appreciably, there’s naturally going to be a requirement for increased reliance on automation.
With the unveiling of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 4, Dan Koloski, senior director of product management and business development at Oracle, says that the company has added a raft of new data governance capabilities designed to make it easier to manage large “data estates.”
The new capabilities include the ability to detect differences across databases to eliminate configuration drift, the capacity to patch fleets of databases at the same time, and tools that optimize the placement of databases based on current workloads and other IT infrastructure constraints and requirements.
In addition, Oracle has added support for data masking capabilities that make it possible to shield production data from the eyes of application developers.
In terms of middleware management, Oracle has updated the REST application programming interface (API) within Oracle Enterprise Manager to make it simpler to integrate with third-party applications and services. At the same time, it has expanded the self-service capabilities that IT organizations can opt to expose.
As database and middleware management evolves into a service, Koloski notes that the tasks associated with keeping these environments both current and compliant have become much more complex. In some instances, databases may be getting larger. With the new release, the number of instances of databases can be grown as developers seek to optimize performance around any given data set.
The challenge going forward, says Koloski, is finding a way to logically manage those instances of databases and middleware in a way that doesn’t require additional administrators that are becoming increasingly difficult to find.
