Oracle 10g: A Self Managed Database?

Oracle 10g: A Self Managed Database?: "This article has discussed two concepts which are an integral pieces of the server self manageability functionality, AWR and AST (Automatic System Tasks). As you know, these features reduce the cost of managing the IT environment by greatly reducing configuration and intuitive day-to-day administration but it does require someone who is familiar with this architecture. The pressure of cost reduction no longer allows the growth of a DBA's staff in the enterprises to keep pace with database growth rate, which results in what some refer to as the 'Management Gap'. DBAs need better tools that increase their productivity and help automate many of their manual tasks. Irrespective of how many tasks are being automated, it is critical to both large and small companies that there is always going to be a need for someone who understands how the database server actually works, especially where organizations push the database to its limits."