Planned Database Migration
Meadows, Denis
computer people on this list may be able to help.
I'm a systems analyst at Southwest Missouri State University. SMSU is a
VM/VSE-ESA shop primarily using VSAM for its institutional data. For
several years, we've used SQL/DS mainly to provide "cold" data tables for
our users' queries. Only a few small tables are used in daily processing.
With the advent of DB2 for VSE, we're planning to make a serious commitment
to database as our production environment, and I'm hoping someone on this
list can help with some of the issues we're facing as we plan the migration.
One of these is the basic question of table design. We want to look at the
big picture and attempt to build a good over-all structure instead of doing
it piecemeal. Since all campuses have certain similarities, I feel there
must be books, articles or papers that present good, workable university
design examples. Our final design will, of course, be our own, but we would
benefit from seeing what others have done.
We also expect to re-evaluate the staff organization as it relates to
database management. It would help to see job descriptions of DBAs and hear
explanations of how they function in your shop, and so forth. We're
particularly interested in where the line is drawn between the duties of
systems analysts and DBAs.
We also are discussing what role could and should be played by consultants
in the planning process.
If you have any information you'd be willing to share, or you'd be available
sometime to talk about the process, I'd appreciate your contacting me
directly by email or phone. Thanks in advance.
Denis Meadows
Systems Analyst
Southwest Missouri State University
Springfield, MO 65804
417-836-4517
dem...@mail.smsu.edu