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How much do Database Administrators make?

07/28/2021

With the astronomical growth of digital platforms in the modern business landscape, databases have grown to play a pivotal role in how companies generate, store, and manage data. This, coupled with the need for data-based insights, has fueled a dependence on Database Administrators. As a Database Administrator, you support current business objectives and help discover new streams of revenue.

Keep reading to learn how much Database Administrators make, how their pay changes from one area to another, and what a Database Administrator does. While the numbers in this article reflect salaries in the United States, Database Administrators earn a considerable income regardless of the country in which they live.

How much do Database Administrators make?

On average, Database Administrators make $93,750 a year. Along with an average salary approaching six figures, Database Administrators enjoy having a job that’s in high demand — with the unemployment rate for these professionals being only 1.7%.

In this line of work, you may find yourself with several targets while hunting for a position. In the United States alone, there are around 132,500 Database Administrator jobs.

The future prospects for Database Administrators look good as well. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the number of jobs for Database Administrators will climb 10% per year until 2029. The projection is based on the estimated increase in the need for database management in virtually all business sectors over the next several years.

How much do Database Administrators make in the Northeast?

The pay for Database Administrators is higher than average in the Northeast United States. For instance, compensation hops up to $105,590 per year in New York. Along with the Big Apple’s bustling financial district, there are many tech jobs in place to support the city’s diverse range of businesses. Database Admins help these companies collect, correlate, and leverage their data. Given the competitive terrain of the Empire State, it’s no surprise Database Administrators make more there.

How much do Database Administrators make on the West Coast?

Like their colleagues in the Northeast, West Coast Database Admins bring in more per year than the country’s average. Database Administrators in California, for example, average about $100,592 annually.

Still, your salary will largely depend on who you work for. A Database Admin at Oracle averages $141,269 per year, and at Verizon, you’d be earning $131,452. The tech environment on the West Coast is ripe for an extensive range of jobs, and database administration is no exception.

How much do Database Administrators make in the Midwest?

The pay for Database Admins drops a little in the Midwest, which is likely due to the region’s lower cost of living. In Ohio, you can expect to make around $61,322. But, by targeting some of the bigger players, you stand to earn more. For instance, a Database Administrator working for Teradata, a big company in Ohio, earns $81,635 per year while working from home.

What does a Database Administrator do?

A Database Administrator is tasked with ensuring that a company’s data is available, accessible when necessary, and safe. Ensuring the safety of data also includes protecting its integrity, meaning its accuracy is left untainted.

To perform these responsibilities, you’ll need to learn how to use tools like SQL — a programming language used to manage relational databases — and its associated frameworks. Get started with these tools in the courses below:

Making data available

To ensure data is available, a Database Administrator has to design, deploy, and maintain an on-premise, cloud, or hybrid infrastructure for collecting and storing data. In some cases, this may involve a relatively straightforward client/server model where several clients have access to a storehouse of data kept on a central server.

But, if a company has satellite locations, ensuring data is available to all stakeholders and employees will often involve establishing networks between locations either using the internet or a wide area network (WAN). This will typically require working with a Network Architect and a security team to ensure the availability of the databases doesn’t compromise the organization’s security.

With the growing demand for customer-facing applications, Database Admins are also called upon to ensure customers’ connectivity and information. Collecting customer data and providing services to people worldwide requires a functional, responsive, flexible database solution. Designing these kinds of databases to support applications is another key aspect of a Database Admin’s job.

To get an in-depth understanding of how apps and databases interface, you can use our Create a Back-end App with JavaScript Skill Path. To optimize your databases for use within applications, check out our How to Transform Tables with SQL course.

Making data accessible

The accessibility of data depends on the structure of the database and ensuring everyone who needs it can get it when necessary. This can be accomplished using apps that connect to databases and constantly update with the most recent data, allowing anyone running the app to access the data they need.

In many cases, a constantly running, fully accessible application isn’t secure enough —  so a Database Admin may have to limit access to certain groups of people. Plus, the database infrastructure may have to be segmented to control which areas are accessible to which people.

Accessibility is important when it comes to applications that depend on the database to function. To ensure their applications can run smoothly, a Database Admin may work with technologies such as Kubernetes, which uses a containerized architecture to grant applications access to database resources. With containers, several features of an application can use information in a database and automatically populate it with freshly collected data.

You can learn the principles and skills driving all communications between databases and applications with our Learn Node-SQLite course.

Ensuring the safety of data

The cybersecurity of a database is a crucial consideration, especially because there are threats, such as SQL injections, specifically designed to infiltrate databases. While protecting a database will often involve collaboration with a cybersecurity expert, a Database Administrator must know how criminals exploit database vulnerabilities and how to code databases in a way that thwarts cyber thieves and vandals.

With our courses, you can learn all you need to know about databases, their structures, coding languages, and how they support people and applications. We also provide learners with invaluable opportunities to interact with other students and their teachers, gaining critical soft skills along the way. Ready to get started? Find your first course in our catalog of programming tutorials.

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