When we launched Database Programming & Design in 1987, few could have predicted the incredible variety of systems that database administrators (DBAs) must grapple with today. Ten years ago, the DBA role was still emerging; in most corporations, it floated somewhere between application development and systems management. And it was mostly part of the mainframe culture. But very quickly, the DBA role developed into the tough job it is today: managing an increasingly distributed, heterogeneous network of databases under heavy demand as one of the corporation’s most precious resources.

As the database industry continues to evolve, will the DBA’s job become automated-and will the DBA be cast off into oblivion like so much evolutionary “dead weight”? Or will DBAs evolve along with the industry, taking on new dimensions as they become caretakers of intelligent, complex, and hence increasingly fallible systems? For this 10th-anniversary special feature, a select panel of Database Programming & Design‘s most frequent contributors-DBAs one and all-dare to predict. – The Editors