From the SELECT Editors

‘Tis the season to write up wish lists and plan for the year ahead. We asked the SELECT Editors what’s on the top of their 2019 DBA wish list. What follows are the submissions we received – from cloud credit to proper punctuation and even a Super Bowl win. (Sure, it’s not DBA-related, but if that editor keeps asking Santa and Santa Oracle, just maybe their wish will come true.)

What’s On Your 2019 Wishlist?

• More PDB’s for a standard edition database (currently only one).
• Better examples in Oracle documentation – always wishing for realistic and practical examples.
• A license agreement with VMWARE and Oracle that everyone can live with and the sales team will support.
• Oracle Cloud API’s to be available with on-premise databases.
• More options to be made available with standard licenses.
• Oracle 12.2 and > to allow shared file systems without ASM.
• I’ve got an Autonomous Data Warehouse and an Autonomous Transaction Processing database. Can I now have an Autonomous understanding at all management levels for implementing a new Oracle technology feature set?
• Technology decisions based more on short term price and easy acceptance of value for the new technology.
• Can I please have an Oracle sales rep that understands the technology I’m working to implement at my IT organization’s sites, why we’ve chosen that particular technology, and why it is the best solution, at least for right now, without having to hear another sales pitch like, “You know, if you just moved that to the Oracle Public Cloud / Cloud at Customer, all of your problems will be solved!”?
• I need to get myself and other Oracle DBAs in my organization trained in real world challenges facing our roles in the coming years. So could I please have some Oracle training that is aware of the market conditions driving technology like Cloud, yet also are rooted in the real world of Oracle database administration? And that explains why we should do something, instead of just how?
• As a stocking-stuffer: Communication is crucial for a world-class support organization, which includes proper grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. Could someone at Oracle Support please check the spelling and grammar within MOS Notes?
• More technical sessions at Oracle Open World.
• Project managers to realize that a DBA’s usefulness goes beyond the management system that we know the business and value the data.
• ADDM report that does NOT report “Undersized SGA” as a finding.
• Proper authorizations and privileges for all users without any abuse of these privileges.
• My Oracle Support to read my entire SR before asking me to perform a task just in case I already documented it. 
• Authors with passion and punctuation.
• More cloud credit so all my databases can be self-managed. DBaaS goes a long way to ensuring that all databases are patched, backed up, highly available with a failover option.
• For security to become second nature to all DBAs and data professionals.
• Detroit Lions to win the Super Bowl in my lifetime! I know that isn’t DBA-related, but if I keep asking Santa and Santa Oracle, maybe it will happen.