Using Business Intelligence to Improve DBA Productivity

The amount of data collected and used by companies has grown rapidly in size over the last decade. Business leaders are now using Business Intelligence (BI) systems to make effective business decisions against large amounts of data. The growth in the size of data has been a major challenge for Database Administrators (DBAs). The increase in the number and size of databases at the speed they have grown has made it difficult for DBA teams to provide the same level of service that the business requires they provide. The methods that DBAs have used in the last several decades can no longer be performed with the efficiency needed over all of the databases they administer. This paper presents the first BI system to improve DBA productivity and providing important data metrics for Information Technology (IT) managers. The BI system has been well received by Sherwin Williams Database Administrators. It has i) enabled the DBA team to quickly determine which databases needed work by a DBA without manually logging into the system; ii) helped the DBA team and its management to easily answer other business users' questions without using DBAs' time to research the issue; and iii) helped the DBA team to provide the business data for unanticipated audit request.