Rising pressures push one in three DBAs to consider career change
A new study from SolarWinds details how growing demands on database administrators are driving job dissatisfaction and increasing career mobility, as the role evolves with expanding technological complexity and AI adoption.
The 2025 State of the DBA Report surveyed more than 1,000 IT professionals, comprising over 500 database administrators (DBAs) and 500 IT executives, to examine the current and future landscape of the DBA profession. The findings highlight mounting pressures in the field, with one in three DBAs actively considering a career change as workloads intensify and work-life balance is affected.
Work patterns and complexity
As organisations increasingly employ hybrid and cloud-native data architectures, DBAs' responsibilities have grown. The report noted that 81% of DBAs still chiefly manage Oracle and SQL servers, but these have become just one part of an expanding mix of technologies supporting analytics, artificial intelligence, and business applications. DBAs now routinely oversee on-premises systems (57% of respondents), public cloud deployments (31%), and private cloud set-ups (12%).
The diversity of platforms DBAs are expected to manage is contributing to an increasingly complex working environment. This increasing range of duties, coupled with a misalignment in expectations between IT executives and DBAs, has the potential to create costly errors and harm the organisation's overall performance.
Firefighting and alert fatigue
The report reveals that DBAs typically spend 27 out of their 40 weekly working hours engaged in reactive tasks, a trend often described as "firefighting." This cycle not only fosters burnout but also diverts attention from long-term, strategic projects. A significant 75% of those surveyed cited alert fatigue as a factor undermining their ability to prioritise and respond effectively to incidents. Nearly half of these respondents categorised the impact of alert fatigue as either "great" or "severe."
Recommendations in the report point towards the provision of suitable tools and resources as essential for alleviating these challenges. Executives are advised to focus on delivering tools that can mitigate complexity, manage costs, and reduce the impact of constant alerts.
The role of AI in database management
Artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape parts of the DBA function. Of those using AI-based tools, 62% said AI helped diagnose performance issues more quickly, while 60% reported greater reliability and consistency in routine tasks. A further 54% indicated these tools reduced the time spent on manual or repetitive work, and 53% said this has enabled them to focus on higher-value activities.
However, AI adoption is not without its obstacles. DBAs, more so than their executive colleagues, report challenges related to increased oversight, workflow alignment, difficulty operating with poor data quality, and a lack of proper data governance and ownership. These new issues demonstrate the complexities of integrating AI into day-to-day processes and underline the need for additional training and planning.
Bridging the gap between DBAs and leadership
The report emphasises the misalignment between DBAs and IT executives as a significant contributor to workplace stress and suboptimal outcomes. Creating a collaborative environment-supported by training, unified tools, and AI-driven support-is described as crucial to transforming DBAs from reactive problem-solvers to strategic partners capable of driving business results.
"The data in this report outlines a reality in which the DBA role is growing more difficult due to the complexity of enterprise IT architectures, amplified by a persistent gap in viewpoint between DBAs and IT executives," said Kevin Kline, Database Management Systems Expert, SolarWinds. "As organisations grow ever more dependent on data and the DBAs who manage that data, it is imperative for us to create a corporate culture that removes complexities and misalignments, setting the stage for true team success."
As the pressure on database administrators mounts, the study highlights the opportunity for organisations to implement solutions that can help retain talent and maximise the value contributed by their data teams.
