{"id":867,"date":"2009-05-10T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T11:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/paul\/post\/Importance-of-having-a-manageable-environment.aspx"},"modified":"2017-04-13T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T16:54:09","slug":"importance-of-having-a-manageable-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/importance-of-having-a-manageable-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of having a manageable environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nLast week's survey was two-fold – what's the largest SQL Server database you manage, and how many SQL Server databases are you responsible for managing. Here are the results as of 5\/10\/2009. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

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\nAs far as the database sizes are concerned, the distribution curve isn't surprising, but the average size of databases *is*. 70% of respondents have a database over 100GB, with half of those being 500GB or more. One lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it!) person gets to play with a 20+TB database. There some truly huge SQL Server databases out there – for instance the 1.1 petabyte astronomical database described <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>, which adds 1.4TB every night. Back in December 2003, the largest SQL Server database was a 5TB Verizon database. Now multi-TB databases seem quite common when talking to large customers. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe distribution curve for the number of databases also seems unsurprising, except for the uptick at the 150+ databases mark. Fully 1\/4 of respondents are responsible for more than 200 databases! Even if the majority of the databases are small, that's still a huge amount of management to consider and context to have to know about. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nSo what was the point of this survey? Well, I've heard from quite a few people this year that some of their DBA colleagues have been let go and they've had to pick up more responsibility, whether they want to or not. Just last week, Microsoft laid off 3000 more people worldwide, including some in their various IT departments. In the DBA class we were teaching last week, it was obvious that some of the attendees were affected and had a lot more on their plates. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nWith the average size of databases growing, and the number of databases any one person is responsible for also growing, it's imperative that the overall environment is as easily managed as possible. What does this mean? Here's a 2-minute list of stuff off the top of my head that I think helps make an environment more manageable: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n