[likis]

I don't think it has ever been enough to JUST look at the java. You said you were pretty good at SQL, so you must think about the performance of your queries, what indexes you use and such.

You can try to improve your java performance as much as you want, but if your database can't handle the load, then you need to look at the database. In my opinion it is NOT enough to look at just the code, you need to look at all of the parts of the system.

Just declaring that you want a database instance in code, using something like terraform should not be an overwhelming thing. Most of the management would be handled by the cloud vendor, you would just need to make sure that it has enough cpu/ram for example. There are probably even easier products where you just store data with some kind of API and you don't even need to bother with the performance of the data store.

But if you just want to write your java code and not care about anything else... Then yeah, maybe the direction of the industry is not aligning with the direction you want to go.

[clouded]

I love relational databases. I think they are among the greatest products to come out of the entierty of computer science, ever. You're right, I do care about application performance and index tuning and query optimization. But it would make no sense to ask me to be a DBA.

[likis]

What would the role of the DBA be if you are the one creating tables, tuning indexes and optimizing your queries?

[clouded]

I thought about how to reply to this, but database roles vary so differently from company to company, it's a bit of a rabbit hole to go down. Whether you call what I described being a DBA or not, I don't think it's reasonable that a software developer would now "own" the database and all that entails. It just so happens that the database fits nicely into being "owned" and managed in AWS. And it also may neatly obviate the need for the DBA role. Although, I think that's debatable too.